The teaser video makes two obvious references to a new location: there's a sign saying "Welcome to Hawkins" as the camera pans backwards, as if someone is walking away, and the video ends with the words, "We're not in Hawkins anymore" flashing across the screen. If Joyce's decision to move away with Will, El, and Jonathan — as well as the introduction of Russian scientists with that ominous postcredits scene — wasn't enough of an indication that things would be changing in the fourth instalment, this teaser definitely should be.
In an interview with Entertainment Weeekly, Matt and Ross Duffer spilled some details about where the Netflix sci-fi hit is headed in the fourth season, emphasising that the next move would expand the Stranger Things world.
"I think the biggest thing that's going to happen is it's going to open up a little bit, not necessarily in terms of scale, in terms of special effects, but open up in terms of allowing plotlines into areas outside of Hawkins," Matt explained.
We're betting that two of those areas we'll be exploring are wherever Joyce and the kids have wound up and the snowy mountains of Kamchatka, Russia — specifically, that ramshackle prison we've gotten glimpses of. Obviously, the biggest question going into season four is who "The American" is in said prison, and we've already gotten some major hints to their identity. But there's another big mystery that could mean this line doesn't allude to what we think it does . . .