Stranger Things 4 gets a release date – and it's coming in two parts

Finally, after a near two-year wait for its next instalment, Netflix has revealed the Stranger Things season 4 release date. And, in a first for the wildly popular show, its next season will arrive in two parts.

Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 will launch exclusively on Netflix on Friday, May 27. Then, fans will have an agonizing wait for Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 to arrive. The second half of the supernatural horror Netflix series will land on the streaming giant on Friday, July 1.

Check out the official confirmation of Stranger Things' return via the tweet below:

Back in December 2021, we suggested that Stranger Things season 4 could release in summer 2022, and it seems that we weren't far off the mark. Even so, we're delighted that season 4 will officially launch on Netflix soon.

Posting a letter alongside the Stranger Things 4 release date reveal, the Duffer brothers – the TV show's creators – revealed why the eagerly anticipated season would be getting released in two parts.

"With nine scripts, over eight-hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things season 4 was the most challenging yet," the letter reads. "But it was also the most rewarding... Given the unprecedented length, and to get it to you as soon as possible, season 4 will be released in two volumes."

That, alongside confirmation that Stranger Things has already been renewed for a fifth season, is the good news that fans have been waiting to hear. The bad news, though, is that Stranger Things season 5 will be the final entry in the series on Netflix.

"Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things," the Duffer brothers added. "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 see for yourselves – we are now hurtling toward our finale."

Interestingly, the Duffer brothers signed off by teasing the possibility of "many more exciting stories" that they wish to tell in the Stranger Things universe. Hopefully, then, we'll get plenty of spin-offs in the form of Netflix movies and TV shows once the curtain falls on Hawkins' eccentric but beloved Upside Down-fighting crew for the final time.

Before season 4's release date was revealed, Netflix revealed a bunch of new Stranger Things posters that teased the beginning of the end of Netflix's hugely successful sci-fi horror show.

Revealed on Netflix's various social media channels, the one-sheets act as a continuation of the four teaser trailers that have been released over the past 12 months. Each poster shows off the four main locations that the show's next two instalments are set in, as well as the characters that'll inhabit each setting. Take a look at the posters below:

Image 1 of 4

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the characters in each location – a Russian prison, Hawkins laboratory, Creel House, and California – are all drawn to the same doorway in their posters. Those glowing, tendril-filled entry points are none other than portals to the Upside Down. It seems, then, that no matter where any of Stranger Things' main players go, they can't escape the alternate dimension that houses enemies including the Mind Flayer and the Demogorgon.

It'll be an emotional day when we have to say goodbye to Eleven, Jim Hopper and company. But, for the time being, we have nine new episodes on the way in Stranger Things season 4's two parts. So let's revel in the fact that, finally, we'll be journeying back to Hawkins very, very soon.

Again, here are those all-important release dates: Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 arrives on May 27, with volume 2 following on July 1.

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