Stranger Things just dropped its first teaser trailer for season four, and though brief, the reveal is massive. Everyone’s favorite rugged small town cop turned grumpy hero dad is ALIVE (though he appears to have been captured by the Russians and is being forced to do prison labor, laying down railroad track while men in furry hats point machine guns at him #GulagLife).
At the end of season 3, it looked like Hopper was killed while closing the gate to the Upside Down (his dramatic sacrifice — “turn the key!” — was the climax of the finale), though many believed he was the shadowy, unseen American being held prisoner by the Russians in the final shot. This trailer confirms that hunch. Seems odd that the Duffer Bros would dangle us from a cliff at the end of season three only to pull us back up in the first teaser trailer, but maybe that’s just an indication of this season being so full of twists and turns that Hopper’s death is small potatoes in comparison.
Season four of Stranger Things premieres on Netflix at an undisclosed time in 2020.
