You can get a good sneak peek of the new season of Stranger Things by watching the first eight minutes right now. With the fourth and penultimate season of the hit series split up into two volumes, Volume 1 is scheduled to start streaming on Netflix on May 27. Ahead of the premiere, you can tease yourself by watching the first eight minutes straight of season 4’s first episode, and you can check that out below.

One reason why the new season has been split up into two volumes was that season 4 is the longest yet of the hit Netflix series. The Duffer Brothers previously told The Wrap how the new season had “quadruple the plot” that they had in season 3. Episodes 7 and 9 in particular are feature-length, essentially serving as Stranger Things films, with episode 9 setting the new record for the series with a runtime that’s over two hours.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

“Partway through we knew we needed to ask Netflix for nine episodes instead of eight and as we started shooting we realized, ‘Oh these are mega-long episodes,’” Matt Duffer said.

Stranger Things Will End With Season 5

     Netflix

It was revealed ahead of season 4 that Stranger Things had been renewed for a fifth and final season. While the plan is to end the series with season 5, the Duffer Brothers are not exactly looking at that season as the end of the Stranger Things universe. They have recently teased that possible spinoffs could be developed with other characters exploring the Upside Down. It will just depend upon the series creators getting an idea that they feel is strong enough to match the parent series.

“We haven’t told anyone our plans! Not even Netflix! We have some ideas," Matt Duffer told SFX Magazine. “In terms of if we were to do any sort of a 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?’ I want to feel the pull of, ‘God, I really want to do this. I feel really, really excited about this.’ So that’s why we’re being careful about what that is and whether we move forward with it or not.”

Ross Duffer added, “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, because what would be the point of that? I do think we have something that could be pretty exciting. So we’ll see…”

First, fans can see how the main series ends, starting with the two volumes of season 4 ahead of season 5. You can read the official synopsis for season 4 of Stranger Things below.

Stranger Things season 4, volume 1 will premiere on Netflix on May 27, 2022. Volume 2 will arrive on July 1, 2022. You can watch the first three seasons streaming now on Netflix.