Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 trailer is ‘Running Up That Hill’

Blair Marnell
By

If you have any doubts about the continued cultural reach of Stranger Things, look no further than the resurgent popularity of ’80s alt-rock star Kate Bush. One of Bush’s songs, Running Up That Hill, was used to great effect in Stranger Things 4 when Max needed an anchor to reality. Without that song, Vecna would have claimed Max as his latest victim. In the real world, Running Up That Hill is getting so much play that it’s becoming the song of the summer — 37 years after it was first released. That’s one of the reasons why Bush’s anthem features so heavily in the new trailer for Stranger Things 4 Volume 2.

Stranger Things 4 | Volume 2 Trailer | Netflix

It looks like the main characters are coming back together in the new trailer for the remaining episodes of the season. All roads lead back to Hawkins and the Upside Down. The good news is that Eleven has her powers back, and she remains a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Vecna is even more powerful than she is, and he knows it. Vecna flaunts it as he taunts Eleven. Stopping him will be no easy feat for the kids of Hawkins and their occasional adult companions.

The cast of Stranger Things.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Winona Ryder stars in the series as Joyce Byers, with David Harbour as Jim Hopper, Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Martie Blair as Young Eleven, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner, and Paul Reiser as Sam Owens.

Recommended Videos

Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 will premiere on July 1 on Netflix with two feature-length episodes. The season 4 finale is reportedly close to two-and-a-half-hours long by itself, which means season 4 should go out with a bang as the series heads into its fifth and final season.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
Vines, gore, and rifts galore: Behind Stranger Things’ season 4 VFX
Eleven points her hand at a portal forming in the wall in front of her in a scene from Stranger Things season 4.

Season 4 of Stranger Things subjected the kids from Hawkins, Indiana, to some of the scariest experiences they've had so far (which is saying a lot) as they battled a new threat from the sinister dimension known as the Upside Down. It also tested the mettle of the show's visual effects teams, which were tasked with delivering the Netflix hit's most massive, explosive scenes so far, as well as some of its most gruesome, nightmarish environments.

Among the visual effects studios to work on Stranger Things season 4 was Scanline VFX, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated studio responsible for creating movie magic in HBO's Game of Thrones and Marvel's  Captain America: The Winter Soldier, among other projects. The Scanline team created more than 220 shots across eight episodes of the season, including the grisly aftermath of the massacre at Hawkins Lab and various elements of the Upside Down and the portal-like "rifts" between our world and that dark dimension. To find out more about their work on the season, Digital Trends spoke to Justin Mitchell, Scanline's VFX supervisor on Stranger Things.

Read more
With Stranger Things and Squid Game, Netflix proves it’s better at making great TV shows than movies
Eleven, Will, Mike, and Jonathan standing and staring in a still from Stranger Things Season 4.

Netflix received a whopping 105 nominations at this year's Emmys, driven by hits like Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Ozark. While it's a decline from last year's 129, Netflix still secured the second-most nominations out of any network or streamer, with only HBO beating it thanks to juggernauts like Succession and The White Lotus.

Still, not everything is great for the so-called King of the Streamers. Whether it's canceling shows left and right or losing subscribers every quarter, the original streamer can't seem to catch a break, and not even its lush and over-the-top original movies can help. Netflix premiered the tiresome The Gray Man less than a month ago, and the film -- which reportedly sports a $200 million production tag -- has already left the pop culture vocabulary; not even the news that a sequel and a prequel are coming was enough to stimulate interest.

Read more
5 movies to watch now that Stranger Things season 4 is over
The cast of Stranger Things season 4 is standing in front of a field looking surprised.

You don’t need us to tell you that Stranger Things is a bona fide cultural phenomenon, and now that season 4 is fully released, you might be wondering how to keep those Stranger vibes going after binging the full series to date. There’s a lot to consider when picking corollaries for Stranger Things; there are obviously a lot of horror elements, particularly in season 4, but there are also themes of nostalgia, friendship, fantasy, and even government conspiracy to consider here, too.

So, while this list of “next ups” will focus its lion’s share on films of the horror and sci-fi persuasion, there are a few options for those more inclined to lighter fare. If you’ve binged the full adventures of Eleven and the gang, here are the next films you should dive into.

Read more