Things are getting turned upside down.
Netflix has released a new teaser for Season 4 of the 1980s period piece sci-fi hit “Stranger Things,” which follows the mysterious goings-on in Hawkins, Indiana, and the gang of friends who get ensnared in it, including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), her boyfriend Mike (Finn Wolfhard), goofy Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), shy Will (Noah Schnapp), Mike’s sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Will’s brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Nancy’s ex-boyfriend and Dustin’s new best friend, Steve (Joe Keery) and more.
In the teaser, Eleven appears to be trapped in a sinister lab facility behind a door labeled “11.”
The sound of other children’s laughter can be heard, as well as a scientist they address as “Papa.” It appears that the villainous Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine) is back, experimenting on children with special abilities — and maybe experimenting on Eleven again.
He was last seen in Season 2, but he faded into the background as Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and Russian scientists became the main Season 3 antagonists.
It’s not clear if this Season 4 teaser is a flashback to Eleven’s previous life before she escaped her lab (back in Season 1) to live with Hopper (David Harbour), or if Brenner has set up shop again and she’s been recaptured in Season 4.
Season 3, which aired in 2019, ended with Eleven tragically thinking that her surrogate father Hopper was dead. (Don’t worry, the show revealed that Hopper will be back in Season 4, along with his much-memed “dad bod.”) Distraught, Eleven moved away from Hopkins with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and her family — which also separated her from her crush, Mike.
Meanwhile, it was revealed to the audience that Hopper was likely alive and imprisoned in a lab facility in Russia. Billy, the bully, got taken out of the action for good, and Steve came into his own and made a new friend, Robin (Maya Hawke).
Season 4 does not yet have a premiere date — but previous seasons of “Stranger Things” have aired in summertime.
