Stranger Things Season 4 Delays Could Avoid It: Chapter 2’s Age Issue

Ageing up the kid characters between seasons can help Stranger Things avoid It Chapter 2’s issue of its cast being the wrong age for their roles.

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The most recent Stranger Things filming delays saw series star Finn Wolfhard state that season 4 may not debut until 2022, so how could this be good news for the show? Debuting in 2016, Stranger Things arrived on streaming service Netflix to stellar reviews, and the show, from Hidden helmers Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, collectively known as the Duffer Brothers, has only grown in popularity in the years since.

The third season arrived in mid-2019 and, although Stranger Things’ season 3 featured the show’s worst subplot to date, the critical acclaim continued to roll in thanks to the show’s inventive blend of horror, sci-fi, and coming-of-age dramedy. A talented multi-generational cast helped, too, although major filming delays between seasons 3 and 4 may mean that the younger members of this lineup will soon be unrecognizable compared to the show’s earlier outings.

According to Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, the latest filming delays that season 4 faces may mean the show likely won’t arrive on screens until 2022, news that at first glance seems to be dispiriting news for those looking forward to the next season. However, as proven by Wolfhard’s earlier role in the Stephen King adaptation It Chapter 2, this could be a positive development for Stranger Things season 4. Delays this long will give the creators time to age up the characters, which will let them avoid the It Chapter 2 problem of the characters being too old to return to their early-teen roles, but not so old that they could play significantly older versions of the characters. In the case of It Chapter 2, this resulted in some distracting and expensive de-aging CGI that detracted from the young cast’s uniformly great work, something many critics noted at the time as an element of the horror sequel responsible for pulling them out of the movie.

The almost three-year gap between season 3 and season 4 of Stranger Things, though, means the Netflix hit can now add a time break between seasons in-universe to age up the young cast and get past the awkward issue of their suddenly older appearances. It is a less expensive and more graceful option than trying to use expensive trickery to age them down or worse, trying to pass off the almost-20-year-old actors as still being 15. Furthermore, picking up immediately after the action of season 3 without adding a time break would mean viewers spent a long time stranded with Hopper in a Siberian gulag, and with the Byers and Eleven separated from the main cast due to their recent move away from Hawkins, Indiana.

Neither of these prospects is particularly exciting for fans of Stranger Things, a show that has always won most of its critical acclaim for the small-town scale of its limited scope and the charming, convincing chemistry of its cast, many of whom are left at a distance from each other by season 3’s glib ending. As such, a time jump that accounts for Hopper’s time in Siberia, the Byer’s time away from Hawkins, and the younger cast member’s evident aging into early adulthood could make narrative and visual sense, thus allowing Stranger Things season 4 to avoid the problems that plagued the production of It Chapter 2.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/stranger-things-season-4-delays-age-mistake-it-2/