Stranger Things Season 4 is about to begin its production soon, but it may encounter a big problem, involving one of its major stars - Winona Ryder. If the show continues its 1980s timeline, it may get across the time when the 47-year-old star's career began and bloomed.
Netflix has yet to announce the new season's settings and chronology. But if it follows suit, Season 1 was set in 1983, Season 2 in 1984, and Season 3 in 1985, there is a big possibility Season 4 would be set in 1986, per BGR.
Ryder's movie debut, Lucas, was released in 1986. Although she was only 15-years-old at the time, she successfully made a name for herself and got Hollywood's attention. From here, she started to appear in iconic films like Beetlejuice in 1988 and Edward Scissorhands in 1990.
As showrunners Duffer Brothers love to give the nod to the pop and geek culture, will there be a chance that these classic films will be featured in Stranger Things Season 4? Will Joyce's (Ryder) son, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), see a young version of his mother on the big screen?
If this happens, the show may feature Joyce as the young Ryder's doppelganger. However, if it indeed features these classic movies, Duffer Brothers should address it one way or another - especially Robin (Maya Hawke) and Steve (Joe Keery) work for a video store. Will, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and the rest of the gang are also fans of pop culture, so it may be impossible for them not to notice a movie featuring the young Ryder herself.
According to PopBuzz, it will be a disservice to Ryder's career and pop culture itself if Stranger Things Season 4 ignores her iconic movies. In an interview with Mashable, producer Shawn Levy admitted the collision of the show's timeline and Ryder's career debut could be a problem.
"That's funny, and I suppose it's possible?" he said. "We're trying to make the show as quickly as we can. We're not in control of those things, but we don't want to bulls*** about those things."
Ryder's age and the possible collision on the show's timeline are not even discussed in Stranger Things Season 4's writers' room yet. Levy added there would be an interesting new relationship between the show's production timeline and what is currently happening in the period fans are watching the show in.
However, Levy admitted he couldn't predict how these two timelines would sync up. So, it looks like fans have to wait for more Stranger Things Season 4 details about this issue.
