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Stranger Things' Gaten Matarazzo says season 4 is a long way from being finished

31 March 2021, 12:01

Millie Bobby Brown talks Stranger Things 4 filming with Jimmy Fallon

By Katie Louise Smith

"There’s really no way to figure out when we’re gonna be wrapping."

Friends, nerds and mouthbreathers, we have an update on Stranger Things 4's release date and filming schedule.

It's been a long time since we were blessed with a new season of Stranger Things. Season 3 was released in July 2019 and fans were treated to the first glimpse of season 4 in a teaser trailer featuring Hopper as the American prisoner in Russia back in February 2020.

In a new interview with Collider, Gaten Matarazzo (who plays Dustin) has now revealed COVID-19 has affected the season, from the filming schedule all the way down to the eventual release date. The TL;DR of it all? It's going to be a while before we see the final product on our screens.

Stranger Things 4: Gaten Matarazzo says there&squot;s "no way to figure out" when filming will wrap — Stranger Things 4: Gaten Matarazzo says there's "no way to figure out" when filming will wrap. Picture: Netflix

Speaking about how far along Stranger Things 4 is in production right now, Gaten revealed that everything is still up in the air due to to the uncertainty of COVID and the restrictions that production have put in place.

"There’s very few dates that are reliable," he said. "It really is more of a guesstimation on when we’re gonna be filming next, when we’re gonna be wrapping up, when release is gonna be, all that jazz because we still don’t know on day-to-day if we’re gonna be filming next week."

Gaten continued: "I should be filming like next month for a bigger chunk than I’ve had in a bit, but even though it’s coming up in about two weeks from now, I still don’t know an exact date. So because of that, there’s really no way to figure out when we’re gonna be wrapping.”

Hopper is back in new Stranger Things 4 teaser

Stranger Things 4 originally started filming in February 2020, but production in Atlanta, Georgia was shut down following the rapid spread of COVID-19 in March.

The good news is that the delay meant that the Duffer Brothers were able to finish writing all the scripts for season 4 ahead of filming, which means they've now had more time than they usually get to refine and perfect the storylines for the coming season.

The bad news is that the cast and crew didn't return to set until October 2020, eight months after the shutdown. Thanks to Gaten's latest update about the uncertainty of the filming schedules, it seems like the delay might be getting longer.

According to various sources, including David Harbour on Instagram Live, Stranger Things 4 was reportedly originally set to air at some point in early 2021.