Stranger Things 4’s Ending Kind Of Makes A ‘Stranger Things 5’ Time-Jump Impossible

Games Stranger Things 4’s Ending Kind Of Makes A ‘Stranger Things 5’ Time-Jump Impossible Erik Kain Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about video games, entertainment and culture. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jul 6, 2022, 07:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Stranger Things Credit: Netflix One of the more puzzling questions fans have been contemplating after watching the two-part Season 4 finale of Stranger Things is how on earth a time-jump will work after everything that went down during the ending of Episode 9. Spoilers ahead, obviously. On the one hand, a time-jump seems like a necessity at this point.

The show’s young cast is getting older by the day. The massive, three year gap between Seasons 3 and 4 really made things worse. The ages of the core cast of kid characters have steadily widened each season .

On the other hand, Stranger Things 4 has basically gotten us accustomed to the kids looking quite a bit older than their characters ought to look so it’s not unfathomable to think audiences could suspend their disbelief for one more season if we pick up right where we left off. And here’s where things get tricky. The Duffer Brothers have basically confirmed that a time jump is happening: “I’m sure we will do a time jump,” said Ross Duffer.

“Ideally, we’d have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. ” But the Season 4 finale, ‘The Piggyback’, ends with Vecna’s rifts opening, destroying large swaths of Hawkins, then closing again (so that everyone thinks it was an earthquake) and then opening right at the very end of the episode as everyone stares on in horror. MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry This is an odd sequence.

Presumably the gates converge when Max dies, then close up when she’s saved by Eleven. But why do they open again? (And really, why not just have them open and stay open?) Whatever the case, this leaves Hawkins in grave peril. Nobody will be able to deny the existence of a supernatural threat at this point.

The whole world will be watching Hawkins, Indiana. The government will swarm to the city. The army will quarantine it.

My question is: How much of a time-jump can you effectively implement with all of this going on, with Max in a coma, and with everything on the verge of yet another major showdown with Vecna and his Upside Down hordes? It’s one thing if it the season ended like the past three. Any of those could easily justify a hop forward in time. But Season 4 ends on a precipice and it seems weird to then begin some time later (presumably more than a couple days or weeks).

I’m not sure how this is supposed to work. Maybe they pick up en media res, with the world already invaded and our heroes running guerilla warfare tactics a la Red Dawn against Vecna’s forces. (To be fair, Red Dawn would be perfect for Stranger Things and its 80s’ nostalgia).

What do you think, dearest readers of mine? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook . You can read my Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 review here and my follow-up on the messy ending here . Follow me on Twitter .

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