Tick-tock… the countdown to Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 has officially begun, and Netflix has released a batch of new photos to tease what’s to come in the finale.
This story contains spoilers for Stranger Things 4 Volume 1.
The first-look images show the main cast banding together for this season’s super-sized conclusion. The characters still appear to be facing their own respective dilemmas, with the Hawkins group devising a scheme against big bad Vecna, the sunny California crew tracking down Eleven, all while Hopper and his comrades are trying to escape snowy Russia.
Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 will debut on Netflix on July 1, with two episodes totalling a runtime of nearly four hours. Volume 1 premiered on May 27 and left behind plenty of open-ended plots and burning questions that fans hope to have answered in the next installment, especially since the show is slated to come to end after the next season.
Season 4 of Stranger Things has been the longest and most ambitious season yet – as well as the most expensive. The penultimate season, which is over five hours longer than previous seasons, is said to have had a per-episode cost of $30 million, making it one of the most expensive TV shows of all time (although Netflix has not confirmed that).
IGN’s review of Part 1 of Stranger Things 4 acknowledged that the show has now entered its endgame and is at “its most ambitious in every way, and that ambition works far more than it doesn’t,” with the first batch of extra-long episodes delivering “top-notch” performances from the cast, an “appropriately terrifying” new baddie, and “some gorgeous special effects.”
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.