Stranger Things season 4: Creators tease moving location from Hawkins in future episodes

*Spoiler warning* The move would potentially elaborate on one of the third season’s biggest cliffhangers

Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer have teased the show’s fourth season, and suggested that they may leave Hawkins, Indiana behind and tell stories set in other locations.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Matt Duffer explained: “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.”

Such a move appears somewhat inevitable considering the last moments of the just-released season three, which climaxed with an ambiguous scene set in Russia that involved a mysterious captive American. The scene additionally bookended a season that opened with a similarly enigmatic moment set in Russia.

“Assuming there’s a season four, obviously the question of who that American is in that cell and then also what they’re doing with the Demogorgon, is a tease,” added Ross. “That’s obviously going to play a huge role in a potential season four.”

If Stranger Things does indeed venture further afield next season, it would mark only the second time the show has significantly left its Hawkins locale. The first time around, in a season two episode in which Eleven ventured to Chicago to track down a girl she remembered from her past, critics were quick to pan the detour. Slate called it “an utter disaster” and “unbelievably awful.”