The wait for Stranger Things season 4 may be a bit shorter than many fans expected it to be. Netflix only recently released season 3 upon the world, after a wait that lasted more than a year and a half between seasons. With that, it was reasonable to expect that the Duffer brothers were going to make us wait perhaps as long before returning to Hawkins, Indiana. However, it looks very much like we're going to see the gang return for more spooky adventures in 2020.

While Netflix hasn't yet confirmed any production information, we know that season 4 is going to happen. And fortunately, a recent production listing states that the streaming service intends to begin filming Stranger Things this October. That would put the series on track for a return in late 2020. Additionally, actress Cara Buono, who portrays Karen Wheeler on the hit sci-fi series, recently revealed in an interview clip that made the rounds on Reddit that, to the best of her knowledge, they were going to kick off filming on season 4 in October. With stuff like this, it's often a situation of where there's smoke, there's fine. And that all qualifies as a great deal of smoke.

We can't firmly take this as the word of law until Matt and Ross Duffer, Netflix or someone else from the creative team, like executive producer Shawn Levy, weighs in. Still, it would seem to be very good news for those who are eager to see what craziness will befall Eleven, Dustin, Mike, Lucas, Will and the rest of the Hawkins residents next season. Obviously, viewers have a lot of questions they want answered. Not the least of which having to do with the fate of David Harbour's Jim Hopper.

The Stranger Things season 3 finale left off with winter approaching. Previously, the first season took place close to Christmas, then we had a season drop around Halloween and this year's batch of episodes made its way online on the Fourth of July. Allowing for a bit of speculation, maybe we're going to get a round of scary and twisted Thanksgiving shenanigans in season 4, since that's when Mike told Ele he'd see her next? If they do indeed kick off production this fall, it wouldn't be at all hard to imagine Stranger Things returning in time for the Thanksgiving holiday season in 2020. And they would definitely need to shoot it sooner, since the kids are growing quickly, and less time will have passed in the story. If they go with Thanksgiving, there will only be a 4 and a half month gap, as opposed to the 10 month ago in the timeline between season 2 and season 3.

Another important point of emphasis is that the kids that the show has centered on, such as Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo, are all growing up. They're also becoming increasingly busy with other projects. It's pretty fair to assume that Netflix and the Duffer brothers would like to wrap things up before they outgrow the roles. While the creators have refused to give a definitive answer, it's been previously indicated that they envisioned the show running for four or five seasons. Also worth mentioning is a rumored report suggesting Stranger Things season 4 would conclude the series. Whether or not that's true remains to be seen, but we could be finding out sooner (relatively speaking) rather than later. This news was previously reported by Comicbook.com.