Stranger Things season 4 is getting a lot of attention for an unexpected reason: leaked images of cards from a tie-in Monopoly board game have spoiled key plot elements ahead of its May 27 Netflix debut, according to a report. According to a Reddit thread dedicated to the leak, the Monopoly Stranger Things game can be “purchased fair and square” at a “national retailer.” While this has not been confirmed, several retailers are advertising merchandise based on previous Stranger Things seasons in order to capitalize on the brand’s popularity.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, which cites a source close to the series, the Monopoly Stranger Things 4 board game was approved by mistake due to the “sheer scale and breadth of the Stranger Things franchising world.”
Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers and Netflix are understandably upset about the leak. Indeed, the Duffer brothers are said to have had a “total meltdown” following the debacle because they wanted to keep Stranger Things 4 plot details a secret until the show’s premiere. They were also allegedly not consulted during the game’s development.
Stranger Things season 4 is not the first title to have been spoiled by tie-in merchandise. When the release of a Rey action figure with a lightsaber revealed a key plot detail from the 2015 space epic Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Star Wars franchise faced a similar situation. Such occurrences are why The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau did not allow toy manufacturers to design a toy for the character of Baby Yoda — or Grogu, as you prefer — until after the series premiere.
Netflix could have taken a similar approach with Stranger Things — and it may still do so for the fifth and final season — but it does hurt sales and allows third-party profiteers to profit, as The Mandalorian did for several months.
Stranger Things 4 is said to be “bigger and better” than previous seasons. In fact, director Shawn Levy recently revealed that some of the episodes are longer than those in his two Ryan Reynolds films, the comedy Free Guy and the sci-fi adventure The Adam Project. The Duffer Brothers hinted at this earlier, stating that the Stranger Things 4 episodes are “very, very long.”
Stranger Things season 4 will premiere on Netflix on May 27, three years after the previous season, with the remaining four episodes following on July 1.
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