Stranger Things Season 4 Theories.

This article will contain major spoiler from ALL seasons of Stranger Things, with heavy spoilers from season 3. Please binge the series then return to this for some cool theories I’ve created.

I don’t know about you but I still haven‘t recovered from the end of season 3. The first 2 seasons had me believing every season would be a happy ending followed by a scary hint to the next season, but season 3 was just the absolute opposite. Hopper dies (allegedly), El looses her powers which has saved everyone multiple times, Joyce and the kids moved and poor Alexie didn’t get to enjoy the carnival for more than 5 minutes. Season 3 left us with one happy ending (kind of), with the Russians saying three simple words. Not the American.

In this article I will discuss my predictions and theories for season 4. Some are more far fetched than others but my aim was to have fun with them rather than taking them too seriously. Hopefully these theories lead to you thinking of some of your own.

Before I get into my reasons as to why I don't believe Hopper is dead, I will start by saying that I also don’t believe that he’s the American. I will explain later on who I think the American is but for now I’ll stick to the topic of Hoppers survival.

There are 2 obvious ways that Hopper could have survived and both of them involve the upside down.

To understand the first prediction just take a look at the image below. If you haven’t already spotted it, the red circle indicates a ladder which is located behind where Hopper is stood when the machine is exploding. This gives Hopper the perfect escape towards the gate, leading to him being stuck in the upside down once the gate closes. I believe this to be the most likely outcome because the writers have included this scene for a reason, although it could just be a method of keeping us guessing until season 4 ( which is working great! ).

This ladder into the upside down could also lead to him being captured by the Russians if he is in fact The American. Alexie mentioned they had previously attempted to open a gate in Russia before coming to Hawkins, and with the post-credit scene showing the Demogorgon they might have managed to successfully open one.

Hopefully one of these outcomes is the answer as to where Hopper ended up, but I guess we’ll only truly find out when Season 4 is released.

Another (very far fetched) predication for what happened to Hopper involves the explosion itself. I know this is a very unlikely outcome but I thought I would try to be creative with at least one of my predictions.

What if the explosion acted as a teleporting zap. It would be similar to how the Delorean zaps through time in Back to the future. This would be a great way for them to give their nod to another 80’s classic. They made the choice to show Back to future in one of the episodes and Steve also mentions it in the video store. This could be the writers way of hinting about the scene with Hopper. You also never actually see Hopper die, and Joyce cant see any remains of Hopper when she goes to look. Usually when a character as important as Hopper dies you would see his death, this just adds to the possibility that he’s still alive.

David Harbour is also contracted for 4 or more seasons of the show, although the writers (Matt and Ross Duffer) have the ability to not pick him back up for season 4. But does anyone see them choosing to continue without one of their most influential actors and completely killing off one of the fan favourite characters since season 1. It would make the show a lot more real however, and have you worrying about all the characters whenever they’re in any type of danger now we know that no one is off limits for death.

Who is ‘The American‘ ?

Like I said before, I don’t believe that it’s Hopper although it most likely will be.

I believe The American is a familiar face from season 1, Dr Brenner. Or Papa. At first I was convinced it was Hopper, who else would the Russians hold prisoner more than someone who destroyed their best chance of opening a gate into the upside down whilst also killing one of their best assassins ?

But with the final scene showing the original monster that we began this journey with, I believe that Dr Brenner is behind all of it. He’s not dead, before any shuts down this theory. One of the directors (Shawn Levy) confirmed he was still alive, he only gets jumped on by the Demogorgon ( so does Nancy ).

It would make sense for the Russians to have found Dr Brenner, or he could have contacted them himself if the US government had betrayed him after his efforts to help them win the cold war with these secret tests. He is the one with the most knowledge when it comes to the upside down ( in terms of researchers). He could have helped them capture the Demogorgon, which resulted in him being held prisoner once he accomplished what they needed from him.

This would set up a great story line for season 4. If Eleven was to get her powers back she may use them to locate Brenner or Hopper. If she sees Brenner is being tortured and held prisoner with a Demogorgon living beneath him, she will obviously want to save him. At the very least it will result in alarms being raised if she discovers the Russians could be using a dangerous monster as a weapon.

Another small prediction I have for season 4 would be another reason the creators would want to bring back Brenner as a main character. Eleven lost her powers at the end of season 3, but what if this is due to the ‘illness’ that Brenner refereed to in the final episode of season 1.

Eleven being sick could bring Brenner back onto the scene in an attempt to make her better again, or for her to get her powers back. This would be easier to do if he wasn’t the American, therefore I believe if he isn’t, then this is what will bring him back into the shows spotlight.

Either way I believe we’ll be seeing a lot more of Dr Brenner in the next season, I just hope he’s dropped the whole creepy act of kidnapping children and giving them drugs. Maybe he can actually provide some help for once. We can only hope.