‘Stranger Things 4’ takes Netflix’s hit retro sci-fi show beyond Hawkins

"Stranger Things 4" got its first teaser today, courtesy of the official Stranger Things Twitter account. The Netflix series, which is in its fourth season (although the creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, maintain that each installment isn't really a "season" in the traditional TV sense, but rather more like a movie broken up across multiple episodes), is being renewed alongside an overall film and TV deal with a nine-figure value for the Duffers at Netflix.

"Stranger Things" manages a unique blend of sci-fi, horror, 1980s-era nostalgia and coming-of-age teen buddy comedy. It's among the most successful of Netflix's original content creations, by most accounts, and also one of the most critically acclaimed. Details about this fourth series are scarce for now, but based on the teaser we can expect the action to move out of Hawkins, the sleepy town that has provided the backdrop for all of the action thus far (minus a very strange outing for main character Elle back in season two).

we're not in hawkins anymore pic.twitter.com/Y4hayuPKvu

- Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) September 30, 2019

Judging strictly from this preview, we also can probably safely assume that a lot of the action will take place in the "Upside Down," the fictional dark mirror dimension from where the series villain monsters originate. It'll be interesting to see if "Stranger Things 4" can spend a whole season in this realm, which seems to mostly be filled with moss, slime, dust and spores of some kind.