‘Stranger Things 4’ Creators Ross and Matt Duffer Call the Grandfather Clock a ‘Core Part of the Mystery’
Fans have speculated about the possibility of time travel in Stranger Things 4 since the end of season 3. Marketing for the upcoming season only added to the rumors when some of the teaser trailers released focused on clock imagery in the scenes. While we don’t think the idea of Stranger Things 4 including time travel is a slam dunk theory, the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, recently addressed the presence of the grandfather clock we saw featured so prominently in the full-length trailer.
All the clocks seen so far in ‘Stranger Things 4’ marketing
From teaser trailers to posters, the imagery for Stranger Things 4 includes several images of clocks. In one of the first images released for the upcoming season, fans saw a clock face hidden in the Stranger Things logo wrapped with the tell-tale vines from the Upside Down. Another teaser released on May 6, 2021, showed Hawkins National Laboratory with a clock on the wall with the hands set at three and 12. However, the most noticeable clock comes in the form of a grandfather clock set at the Creel House.
In the Creel House teaser released on Sept. 25, 2021, several of the kids in Hawkins investigated the abandoned Creel House. As they go up the stairs, the camera zooms in on the face of an old grandfather clock left in the house. We saw that same grandfather clock in the poster labeled 003, released on Feb. 17, 2022, and showrunners used it again for the livestream counting down to the trailer.
The Duffer Brothers called the grandfather clock a ‘core part of the mystery’
The Duffer Brothers addressed fans’ suspicions about the clock when they sat down with IGN to break down the Stranger Things 4 full-length trailer. However, the pair didn’t confirm any time travel in the series just yet.
“It’s a really core part of the mystery that our Hawkins group is trying to solve,” Ross explained. “So I don’t want to give away too much other than to say this clock plays a very, very important role moving forward.”
Matt added, “And you don’t want to see the clock! If you see the clock, it’s not great. Max, unfortunately, did see the clock, and as we see her levitating later in the trailer, it doesn’t seem like that was a good thing.”
‘Stranger Things 4’ gives off heavy haunted house vibes
The marketing and a handful of interviews with the cast hinted at a horror-heavy storyline for Stranger Things 4. Ross and Matt Duffer discussed their love for scary movies and why they felt like a horror movie made sense for the young cast this season.
Speaking with IGN, Matt said, “We’ve wanted to do the haunted house thing, I think, for a while. Every year we’re trying to do something different. This was a more horror-leaning season. We had our kids, they’re obviously in high school, and it just felt very natural that they should be in a horror movie.”
With the reveal of this season’s big bad, Vecna, to Robert Englund’s character Victor Creel’s lack of eyeballs, it’s pretty clear Stranger Things 4 is definitely upping the ante when it comes to chills.
