In brief: Netflix hosted a big Stranger Things fan event over the weekend where it unveiled an upcoming virtual reality game based on the hit franchise. In Stranger Things VR, players will assume the role of season four villain Vecna as they explore unknown realities, form the hive mind and tame the void.
Invading minds and conjuring nightmares is also part of the job description as you work towards enacting revenge on Eleven and the small town of Hawkins.
Netflix dropped season four of Stranger Things in two parts. Volume one premiered on May 27, 2022, as a seven-episode collection followed by the final two episodes on July 1, 2022. The season featured a powerful new villain, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), as well as a cameo from horror legend Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare of Elm Street).
Season four became only the second Netflix release to amass over a billion hours viewed, reaching 1.15 billion hours in the first 28 days of release. Korean sensation Squid Games hit 1.65 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days and stands as the most popular show on the streaming service.
Netflix hosted Stranger Things Day on November 6, the anniversary of the day Will Byers went missing in the show way back in season one. Netflix also revealed that the first episode of the fifth and final season will be titled, "Chapter One: The Crawl."
season 5. chapter one. the crawl. happy stranger things day pic.twitter.com/xCdNLjD7Yt
--- Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) November 7, 2022
Anxious fans ready to take in season five will need to be patient as filming is not expected to start until sometime in 2023. Even still, there should not be as big of a gap between season four and five as there was between three and four "due to the fact that we already have an initial outline, and we can't imagine there will be another six-month forced hiatus," the show's creators said.
Stranger Things VR is described as a psychological horror / action game and is being developed by Tender Claws, an art and game studio based in Los Angeles best known for narrative game Virtual Virtual Reality (VVR).
Stranger Things VR is expected to arrive on major VR platforms in the winter of 2023.