Why Is Max Floating in New Stranger Things Trailer?

By Kofi Outlaw

The new Stranger Things Season 4 trailer certainly invites a lot of questions, as moments of the striking footage seem to suggest developments and twists that could be (literally) mind-blowing for fans. One aspect of the Stranger Things 4 storyline is how the threat of the Upside-Down can actually be stopped, now that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has lost her ESP powers. Well, one moment in the trailer footage could potentially be our first hint as to the answer to that looming question, as we see Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) floating in the air!

So why is Max floating in the new Stranger Things Trailer? 

There are a couple of good theories that we can breakdown about what Max floating means for Stranger Things 4 – and why showrunners the Duffer Brothers and Shawn Levy chose to show it. 

New Power – Who Dis?

The Stranger Things 4 trailer footage seems to suggest that the Hawkins geeks we've come to know and love will be stepping up in a truly heroic way to stop the threat of the Upside Down – even venturing back into the dark realm. It's also made clear through trailer dialogue that Eleven's powers are key to this war – but what if she's not the only one who can actually fight it? 

Stranger Things has been telling a story all along about a group of misfits coming together to find themselves and discover their connections to one another. A plot twist of some of the other kids (or each of them) gaining some kind of power through their experience with Eleven and/or the Upside Down would really bring such a story full circle – and deliver some epic payoff without ruining the higher stakes. Plenty of X-Men (and X-Kids) have died fighting the good fight... 

Seeing Max float is certainly a shocking moment for the others gathered with her – Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Steve (Joe Keery) – but could it be the moment the young girl discovers her own power? 

Ghostbusters! 

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(Photo: Netflix)

Then again, the context of a scene really is established by one key factor: setting. Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Steve are clearly in a graveyard – and early trailer footage establishes it pretty clearly as the Hawkins graveyard where Max's dead step-brother Billy Mayfield (Dacre Montgomery) is buried. Max is seen and heard reading letters to her dead brother at the opening of the trailer – could the later shot of her floating over his grave be a sign of Billy "talking back?" 

In Stranger Things Season 3 Billy became one of the "flayed" agents of The Mind Flayer, evil overlord of the Upside Down (who finally appears in this new trailer!). Since Billy's consciousness was corrupted by The Mind Flayer we have no idea what happened to his "soul" after his death. Billy's grave could be anything from a nexus point where Max can make contact with her brother (whose lingering soul could help defeat The Mind Flayer), to a trap The Mind Flayer has set, where the beast can use Billy to break through the realms and possess a new "flayed" host. 

Stranger Things does love its Ghostbusters influences... 

Stranger Things Season 4 (Part 1) arrives in May. 

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