'Stranger Things' showrunners say Season 4 is like a Hollywood blockbuster

The Duffer Brothers talked about Russian characters, storytelling expectations, and shared filming updates in a recent interview about "Stranger Things" Season 4.

Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of the hit Netflix show "Stranger Things," told The Hollywood Reporter that they want the upcoming season "to feel like the big Hollywood summer blockbusters that we grew up with and loved so much." With this in mind, they made the season more fun and exhilarating with the addition of "a little more humour in it, a little more action."

"It just has a different feel than the past two seasons, which were set in the fall and a little more dreary and scary," Ross teased, when asked to compare the storytelling for "Stranger Things" Season 4 to the past seasons.

The trailer for "Stranger Things" Season 4 teased the appearance of more Russian characters, not the ones previously seen. When asked if they had the Cold War in mind from the beginning of the show, Matt shared that they added the Russians as a way to introduce "new villains and new characters and new flavour."

However, they never really expected the show to go beyond Season 1. ]The Russians became staple characters for the series then. They not only provided new villains but also introduced fun and endearing characters like Alexei (Alec Utgoff) in Season 3.

Filming for "Stranger Things" Season 4 stopped mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no update yet when production will resume. According to reports, staff and crew are looking at a September start date.

However, The Duffer Brothers did not say exactly when this would be. They only acknowledged that everyone is "excited to get back to work." But they said the "priority is the safety of the cast and crew, and that will dictate" when production will resume. On the positive side, they said quarantine gave them "a lot more time to work on the scripts."

"For the first time, we have all the scripts written and we're able to look at it as a whole piece and make adjustments," Matt revealed.

Ross then answered fans' questions about the final season for "Stranger Things" and he confirmed that it is not Season 4. He said the pandemic gave him and Matt "time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show" and "how long we need to tell that story." He assured that they "know what the end is" and "know when it is."