Season 4 of Stranger Things probably isn’t going to premiere any time soon, so any update on the next season of the hit Netflix series is appreciated — and the show’s writers provided a fun one.
The official Twitter account for the Stranger Things writers’ room has posted a photo of the script for the season 4 premiere, and the title of the episode is front and center on the pages. “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club,” reads the front page.
looking for new members… are you in? pic.twitter.com/P1xAWNUPss
— stranger writers (@strangerwriters) November 7, 2019
Confirmed plot details for the fourth season of the series remain scarce, but there’s been no shortage of speculation regarding the meaning of the title — as well as the writers’ caption for the photo, which reads, “looking for new members… are you in?”
One reasonable guess has the group of kids from Hawkins, Indiana, giving their group a name that alludes to the numerous times they’ve been confronted with nightmarish threats from the underworld-like dimension known as The Upside Down and lived to fight another day. (Well, most of them lived to fight another day, that is.)
The episode’s title could also be steeped in the same 1980s nerd-friendly nostalgia that informs so much of the rest of the series.
In January 1980, celebrated comic book creators Chris Claremont and John Byrne introduced a group of mutant villains to the X-Men universe known as The Hellfire Club. The group was composed of several powerful mutants with superhuman abilities — including future X-Men film franchise villains Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw — and became a recurring foe for Marvel’s mutant superhero team over the years.
Given that the fourth season will take Eleven and the kids out of Hawkins for more adventures (possibly all the way to the Soviet Union), and fans have already been introduced to another former test subject with powerful abilities, the stage could be set for Stranger Things to go all-in on a comics-style, super-powered showdown. Whether that battle will involve more of the evil entities from The Upside Down or other individuals with powerful abilities, however, remains to be seen.
Wit no premiere date for season 4 announced yet, there’s plenty of time to ponder what the episode’s title could mean, and what the future might hold for Eleven and the rest of the former (and current) residents of Hawkins.
