After waiting since the summer of 2019, the fourth season Stranger Things is finally here! The season premiered on May 27th; however, not all of the episodes were released– two more are set to air on July 1st. So far, the released episodes have been over an hour long each, longer than the ones in previous seasons. Although the runtime for Stranger Things’ fourth season is lengthier, fans were able to set the viewership record of the opening week for an English-Language show on Netflix with 286.7 million hours, surpassing Bridgerton’s second season with 193 million hours streamed. 

Another notable difference between the newest and previous seasons is the physical change of the actors. In the three years between seasons 3 and 4, most of the actors continued their teenage years, and are soon reaching the end of it. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) was 12 at the start of the series, and she is now 18. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), who was 14 in the first season, is now 19. Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) was 11 when he first starred, but he is now 17. Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) began acting in Stranger Things when he was 14, and now he is turning 20 this upcoming December. Caleb McLaughin (Lucas Sinclair) was 14, and he is at the age of a whopping 20 years old. Sadie Sink (Max Mayfeild) debuted her role in the second when she was 15, and she is now 20. Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) started at 24, and is now 30. These are only a few of the many characters that the viewers of Stranger Things have watched grow up over the past 6 years.