Posted in: Netflix, Preview, Stranger Things, streaming, TV | Tagged: hawkins, kyle lambert, netflix, preview, season 4, stranger things, teaser

Stranger Things First Official Hawkins Map Explores Town's Mysteries

So we're back with some more fallout from today's "Stranger Things Day" celebration, honoring the day in 1983 when Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) went missing in Hawkins, Indiana- beginning a four-season-and-going-long epic adventure & global series phenomenon. Earlier, we had a look at how life is going for some familiar faces in California and how Hawkins has a far greater reach than Indiana (more on that below). This time around, the spotlight returns to the town viewers have grown to know and love (and fear) with the first official map of Hawkins courtesy of artist Kyle Lambert.

With the third season wrapped and Hopper (David Harbour) seemingly dead, the Byers (Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp & Charlie Heaton) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) prepared to leave Hawkins. But as we've already seen and what becomes abundantly clear in the clip below, Hawkins has a reach that extends well beyond Indiana. So as much as Eleven is really looking forward to a great Spring Break with Mike (Finn Wolfhard), outside forces might have something to say about that:

Previously, producer Shawn Levy and the folks behind the global phenomenon released a teaser video confirming that viewers could relax for the rest of the year because their heroes wouldn't be back until next year. Here's a look at that featurette, which also visually recaps the entire series run so far:

If you feel like you haven't seen a new episode of Stranger Things since the '80s, Levy feels your pain. "To state the incredibly obvious, it's been way, way, way, way too long, and it's coming," Levy revealed to Variety regarding the fourth season of the global phenomenon earlier this year. But though it was actually only 2019, the producer offered some very promising news for fans. "It's coming soon enough. And as for when exactly that will be announced — quite soon."

While the COVID pandemic was a big reason for how long production has taken, Levy also explained that the fourth season going bigger in a number of ways also contributed to the additional time needed. "I shot in Lithuania right before the pandemic. We have filmed in Georgia, Lithuania, and New Mexico, so suffice to say Season 4 is sprawling," he explained. "It's visually and narratively very ambitious, much more ambitious than the prior three seasons. The delay is due in large measure to COVID and the pace at which we have to work to do so safely, but it also happens to be the season that we chose to go much bigger," Levy continued. "It's the scale of this season and the multi-settings of Season 4."

Previously, we learned that Jamie Campbell Bower (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Sweeney Todd), Eduardo Franco (Booksmart, The Binge), and Joseph Quinn (Catherine the Great, Howards End) were joining the cast of Stranger Things as series regulars. Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), Sherman Augustus (Into the Badlands, Westworld), Mason Dye (Bosch, The Goldbergs), Nikola Djuricko (Genius, In The Land of Blood and Honey), and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise, V) are also joining in recurring roles. In addition, Brett Gelman's Murray Bauman has been promoted to series regular. In addition, Amybeth McNulty (Anne with an E), Myles Truitt (Black Lightning), Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South), and Grace Van Dien (The Village) have also joined the Stranger Things cast.

The fourth season of Stranger Things finds "a new horror beginning to surface, something long-buried, something that connects everything," here's a look at who's playing who- offering clues to not just where our heroes stand since we last saw them but also to where the action will be taking place this season (including a psychiatric hospital). Bower plays Peter Ballard, a caring man who works as an orderly at the psychiatric hospital. Tired of the brutality he witnesses day after day, Peter feels compelled to take a stand- but will he? Englund's Victor Creel is a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s. As for what's going on with Hopper over in Russia, Wlaschiha's Dmitri is a Russian prison guard who befriends Hopper: smart, cunning, and charming- but can he be trusted? Djuricko's Yuri is a seedy and unpredictable Russian smuggler who loves bad jokes, cold hard cash, and crunchy style peanut butter.

Quinn's Eddie Munson is an audacious 80's metalhead who runs The Hellfire Club, Hawkins High's official D&D club. Hated by those who don't understand him — and beloved by those who do — Eddie will find himself at the terrifying epicenter of this season's mystery. Meanwhile, Franco's Argyle is a fun-loving stoner who proudly delivers delicious pizza pies for Surfer Boy Pizza- and Jonathan's new best friend. Augustus' Lt. Colonel Sullivan is an intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins once and for all (uh-oh), while Dye's Jason Carver is living the life of the handsome, rich, sports star who's dating the most popular girl in school. That is until a new evil threatening Hawkins turns everyone's world upside down.

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