Stranger Things releases its first official teaser trailer for the upcoming season of the show

An official teaser for the upcoming fourth season of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things was uploaded to the series’ YouTube account on Thursday. 

The clip takes place in a medical facility filled with young children setting an eerie tone before Martin Brenner enters the room and delivers an ominous message, after which Eleven’s eyes are seen opening. 

This new season of the science fiction-thriller series, which also stars Millie Bobbie Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder and Gaten Matarazzo, has been in development since 2019. The production team was experiencing several delays for various reasons, including lockdown from COVID-19.

The teaser begins with various shots from what appears to be a clandestine medical facility, with two children crawling behind toy cars that move on their own.

Another patient drops a small wooden disk into a wall full of pegs while another duo plays chess with each other.

After the wooden toy lands in a box marked ‘7,’ the camera pans out and shows a room full of children with medical gowns and shaved heads, similar to how viewers were introduced to Millie Bobby Brown’s character, Eleven.

A shadowy figure then slowly approaches the facility’s door and wishes the patients a good morning, to which they respond by calling him ‘Papa,’ marking the return of Brenner, played by Matthew Modine.

The camera begins turning towards a door with a sign that simply reads ’11’ as the sinister laboratory director ominously tells the children, ‘today, I have something very special planned for you.’

The trailer ends with Brown’s character suddenly opening her eyes as Brenner asks her, ‘Eleven, are you listening?’

Development on the fourth season of Stranger Things officially began in 2019, shortly after the premiere of the show’s third run of episodes. 

The series’ writers previously hinted at a change in setting that would occur in the project’s future, with many fans expressing that Russia would be used as a principal location.

In addition to Brown, series regulars Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder and Gaten Matarazzo, among several others, will star in the new set of episodes.

Several new performers, including Robert Englund and Jamie Campbell Bower, were later added to the show’s cast.

Although David Harbour’s character, Jim Hopper, was seemingly killed off at the end of the series’ third season, he later confirmed that he would be reprising his role in the future.

Principal photography began in February of last year, with the crew working on scenes at a decommissioned prison in Lithuania.

Filming eventually moved to the series’ longtime shooting location of Atlanta before production was shut down in March as a response to the onset of the global pandemic.

After several months of delays, shooting resumed in September of last year and has continued ever since then. 

The upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things is set to be released on the Netflix streaming service at  an unspecified date in the near future.