Stranger Things season 4 will be 'scarier, gorier and more violent', say stars
Stars of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things have promised a dark and thrilling new season at the show's premiere on Saturday.
Season four of the sci-fi horror drama will be "scarier, gorier and more violent," warned actor Noah Schnapp, who plays Will. "Be ready for that when you tune in."
Stranger Things 4 will be re-leased in Europe on 27 May in two volumes. Fans will have to wait five weeks for the second volume which is due on 1 July.
"It's brutal," said Jim Hopper ac-tor David Harbour, while flaunting his custom-designed suit on the red carpet.
"[Hopper] has never been as brutal as he is this season ... He has to fight these horrible threats, you know, monsters, Russian guards, a prison environment, the snowy tundra in bare feet [and] malnutrition."
Harbour and Schnapp were joined by co-stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb Mclaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo at the New York premiere.
"I can't give up too much but this season ... is definitely more intense [and] definitely a lot more darker," said Lucas Sinclair actor Mclaughlin. "Oh, man. What can I say that I can't spoil [it]."
Set six months after the Battle of Starcourt (season 3), Stranger Things 4 depicts the Hawkins friends' struggling after the horror wrought on their small town.
Apart from one another for the first time and feeling lonely, they are trying to move on with their lives.
That is until an other-worldly threat comes on the scene, bringing with it clues to solving the riddle of the 'Upside Down'.
"We're not just dealing with the Upside Down," said Mclaughlin. "We're dealing with our own personal issues as well."
"I feel like this season is going to answer a lot of questions for our fans," he added.
The much anticipated season four comes after COVID-19 caused a three-year hiatus, with the last series aired in July 2019.
Speaking to AP reporters, ac-tors at the premiere said they were looking forward to seeing their characters grow and develop in the fourth season.
Gaten Natarazzo aka Dustin Henderson said: "I'm excited to see his [Dutin's] growth, he's going into high school, which is really, really exciting.
"It's something that everybody gets anxious about and seeing where he's going to fit in with new older kids that he wants to impress," he said.
Sadie Sink said her character Max Mayfield will be in "a pretty dark place" this season but she added it was nice to "tap into" that side of her.
"It something we don't often do on the show, which is just [to] stop and think like, hey, how is this trauma affecting our characters?
"Trauma is a huge theme throughout all of season four really," she said.
Other actors were relieved that
their characters had been spared the more intense moments of the show.
"It's funny because my charac-ter ... is in almost the thriller kind of action ... whereas a lot of the other actors are involved in the kind of, yeah, the brutal aspect," said Vancouver native Finn Wolfhard, starring as Mike Wheeler.
"I got the light stuff this year," he added.
The first volume of the nineepisode Stranger Things season four streams from 27 May with Volume Two following 1 July.