Stranger Things's Matt Duffer Explains Why Season 4 Is Autobiographical: High School Was Really Challenging

During

the promo for Stranger Things Season 5, creators and twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer are discussing more of their thoughts on the Netflix series and how much of themselves is in the show. Earlier they revealed that they related most to the character of Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard. In a new interview, Matt Duffer shared that the tone of Season 4 and the darker high school experience were autobiographical for them.

Matt Duffer reveals why Stranger Things Season 4 was autobiographical

In an interview with Variety, Matt and Ross spoke about writing about their childhood experiences. Ross stated, "The friendship of all the young characters to us is the most autobiographical. We had a small group of really close friends. We were playing Magic: The Gathering and video games and making movies and having adventures in the woods. So a lot of especially the early years was us attempting to remember what that felt like and tapping into that feeling again."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Netflix UK & Ireland (@netflixuk)

Matt continued, "Season 4 was the most autobiographical in terms of how difficult high school specifically was for us. There wasn’t any one character who, again, was a one-to-one, but Max’s storyline was a way of us communicating what a lot of high school felt like to us, and same with what the boys were going through." ALSO READ: Stranger Things Co-Creators Matt And Ross Duffer Reveal Why Season 5 Will Have 'Most Violent Death Yet'As the twin filmmakers grew up in the 1980s, the era in which the show is set, students often felt feelings of isolation if they didn't fit into a group. Matt added, "At the time, there wasn’t a lot of mental health awareness. It wasn’t something that anybody was talking about. Looking back on it now, do I understand what I was going through. But it’s scarier when you don’t understand what it is that’s going on with you. You just feel like there’s something wrong. The best thing that ever happens to me with this show is when young kids or teenagers come up to me, some of them are older now, and they say the show helped them through these periods." The fourth season of Stranger Things showed Vecna (Jaime Campbell Bower) targeting Max (Sadie Sink) as his fourth victim with hallucinations and other bad omens. Already reeling from the death of her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery), Max closes herself off from her friends and family. The Netflix series will begin its final season on November 26 at 5 pm PT (November 27 at 6:30 am in India).