Realistically, considering how season three left us hanging, we all already knew there would be another (quite possibly final) installment of popular Netflix sci-fi horror show <em>Stranger Things</em>. But now it's officially confirmed, as the show's Twitter account dropped a trailer on Monday night, which has since garnered nearly 10 million views. Here's everything we know for sure about the season so far, plus a little bit of speculation for good measure. <strong>Note: there are spoilers for season three ahead.</strong> We know this because it's pretty much all the teaser tells us. The recognisable music from the show plays as the logo fades into a darkened background in a setting that looks very much like the Upside Down. As a bell tolls, the words "we're not in Hawkins anymore" appear, one by one. Then the 38-second clip ends. Now, a return to the Upside Down seems likely, as does a jaunt to Russia, considering the ending of season three, but then the Byers family have also left Hawkins for less-scary pastures. So perhaps we're actually looking at at least three different settings throughout the season. Matt Duffer, who is a co-creator and showrunner along with his brother, Ross, did tell <em>Entertainment Weekly</em> that they're exploring other lands. "I think the biggest thing that's going to happen is it's going to open up a little bit, not necessarily in terms of scale, in terms of special effects, but open up in terms of allowing plotlines into areas outside of Hawkins." This seems like a no-brainer after watching the teaser, which is dark, sinister and ominous. As already mentioned, it looks like the formerly Hawkins-based cast – or at least part of it – has slipped into the Upside Down. Perhaps some of the show will be set in Russia, with "the American", but wherever it's set, we know for sure things are about to get super serious. But, as long as we've still got Dustin around, we know there will still be plenty of light comedic relief. The teaser leaves us no hints about this, but season's three cliff-hanger post-credits scene showed a few Russian guards in a secret research facility in Kamchatka about to feed someone to a captive demogorgon. But they decided to "leave the American". Chances are, we've come across this mysterious American person in the show before and so the identity reveal will surely play a major part of the new season somewhere along the line. And let's not forget, we never actually saw poor Jim Hopper's dead body after he was seemingly blown to smithereens by the Russian laser, so it is quite possible the prisoner will prove to be none other than Hawkins' chief of police himself. Of course, he was pretty close to the entrance of the Upside Down, so he could be there instead. (Wherever he is, we're pretty certain he's not actually dead, but that is pure speculation...) There are also some online rumours circulating that it could actually be Dr Martin Brenner, who died in season two... Ross Duffer has previously suggested, in an interview with <em>New York Magazine</em>, that it would be "a four season thing and then out". But then series producer Shawn Levy told <em>Entertainment Weekly</em> that it might stretch to a fifth season. "Hearts were heard breaking in Netflix headquarters when the Brothers made four seasons sound like an official end," Levy told the publication. "The truth is we're definitely going four seasons and there's very much the possibility of a fifth. Beyond that, it becomes I think very unlikely." We previously wrote that we think the show should <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/television/six-reasons-why-stranger-things-should-end-with-season-3-1.883604">end on a high with season three</a>. Expanding to five seems a bit much, likely to disappoint fans and could ruin the momentum the creators have already built up. Four seems safe, but, then again, who knows what they have up their sleeves. Firstly, there tends to be about one to two years' gap between each season, and the third only aired on Thursday, July 4 of this year. Historically, Netflix has dropped the new episodes around public holidays. Near to Halloween for season two, for example, and America's Independence Day for the latest. But let's also note the times of the show itself: winter 1983 for the first, autumn 1984 for the second, summer 1985 for the third. So it's likely that we're looking at spring 1986 for the fourth (could the reference to the seasons be a clue that this will actually be the final season?). There's also this whole Reddit theory that it all has something to do with the Chernobyl disaster, and that took place on April 26, 1986. Could we be looking at an April 2020 or even 2021 drop? Then again, Mike and El made plans at the end of season three to see each other again at Thanksgiving. So could it air in November 2020 (2019 seems very unlikely)? We'll just have to wait and see on this one.
