In an official announcement from Netflix, Matt and Ross Duffer wrote, “seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but — as you’ll soon see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last.”

Three years in between seasons of Stranger Things has felt like forever, but with the first installment of season four coming out next month, there’s much to decipher until then. It’s that time of year again when people look meticulously at trailers for just a glimpse at what could be considered foreshadowing of the upcoming season.

Back on September 25, 2021, the Duffer Brothers along with Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery welcomed everyone to Creel House with a trailer and first look at what would be coming next in the Stranger Things universe. The clip shows a glimpse into the haunted house and the family that moved into it.

Everyone can rest assured that David Harbour will be returning as the lovable Jim Hopper. Winona Ryder will return as Joyce Byers, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, and Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler.

Supposedly absent from the series is Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove, except for two episodes shown on IMDB.com where the actor’s name appears as a cast member in season 4. One episode is in the first volume on May 27 in the episode titled “Dear Billy” and another episode in volume two titled “The Dive.” Those two are the only episodes where his name appears in season four. It isn’t clear whether or not Dacre will appear in flashbacks as Billy or in some other way. His character died in season three.

There are also some new characters in season 4. Jamie Campbell Bower as Peter Ballard who is an orderly at a psychiatric hospital. Eduardo Franco who plays Argyle who plays a pizza delivery guy for Surfer Boy Pizza and Joseph Quinn who plays Eddie Munson who runs the Hawkins High’s Dungeons and Dragons club.

Some may say that this is truly the beginning of the end. Or is it? Before everyone gets too caught up with the show ending, there have been talks of potential spin-offs. The Duffer brothers have stated that “we have some ideas. In terms of if we were to do any sort of spinoff, or any continuation of Stranger Things, for us the bar was always ‘is the idea exciting enough that we feel the pull of wanting to do it again?'”

Ross Duffer said “the key for us is that it needs to feel like its own distinct thing, not that we’re just retreading what we’ve already done. I do think we have something pretty exciting, so we’ll see.”

For now, fans can only hope!