The marketing for Stranger Things 4 has put the focus on a bunch of our favorite Hawkins residents, including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Hopper (David Harbour), and Steve (Joe Keery). Someone who hasn’t featured all that much in the trailers, however, is Sadie Sink’s Max. Although she didn’t arrive on the scene until season two, Max has become a firm fan favorite over the past couple of seasons. So folks should be pleased to know that, despite appearances, season four will be a big one for the character.
While teasing what’s come to IGN, producer and director Shawn Levy promised that at lest one episode will be all about Max. That’s episode four, titled “Dear Billy”, which Levy describes as “a Sadie anthem.” He called it “the episode we’ve been waiting to give Sadie Sink since the day we met her.” Having witnessed the actress grow over the years, Levy stresses that they wanted to supply Sink with something for her to “really sink her teeth into this year.”
The last time we saw Max, she had been hit pretty hard by her step-brother Billy’s (Dacre Montgomery) death during the Battle of Starcourt Mall against the Mind-Flayer. Although season three saw her open up and develop a sunnier personality, Sink herself explains that Max’s grief has caused her to withdraw into herself again.
As the star put it:
“Max in Season 4 is a little bit closer to where she was in Season 2, because she had this guard up just from being the new kid. And then in Season 3, she relaxes into something and we get to see a more of a fun and comfortable version of Max. But with Season 4, she’s reverted back to her old ways, but on another extreme. She took it to another level. So, in some ways it feels familiar, but it’s really, it’s just heartbreaking to see. It’s almost like the life has been drained out of her.”
Although Levy specified episode four as Max’s time in the spotlight, creators the Duffer brothers have previously teased that her increased importance will run throughout season four as her grief will be one of the lynchpins of the story. “So much of the season is about Max,” they said, as Max will have “shut a lot of people out” as she “struggles internally” with her pain. Sounds like these episodes should be a terrific showcase for Sink’s talent, then.
Stranger Things 4 premieres the first half of its mammoth-sized run on Netflix next Friday, May 27. The second volume then follows six weeks later on July 1.
