Stranger Things season 4's first episode may have a Marvel-inspired name
"The Hellfire Club" is a title that'll get X-Men fans speculating.
Could the title of Stranger Things season 4's first episode hint at Eleven pulling a Jean Grey?
The Stranger Things Twitter account released a bunch of fun bloopers on Wednesday, but it also followed up with a hint of the Netflix show's fourth season -- retweeting a photo of a script showing the name of the first episode, "Chapter One: The Hellfire Club." Fans of Marvel's X-Men comics will know this as the name of a supervillain group responsible for unleashing Dark Phoenix.
"looking for new members... are you in?" reads the tweet from the Stranger Things writers' account.
looking for new members... are you in? pic.twitter.com/P1xAWNUPss
— Stranger Writers (@strangerwriters) November 7, 2019
The episode will be written by series creators Ross and Matt Duffer.
In the X-Men's Dark Phoenix Saga, which ran from Uncanny X-Men No. 129-138, Jean Grey's psychic and telekinetic powers brought her to the attention of the Hellfire Club, who were a bit like Marvel's Illuminati. This morally questionable group got the telepathic Mastermind to manipulate Jean into unleashing her full potential and causing havoc as Dark Phoenix.
We don't know if the Stranger Things episode title is a hint that Eleven, who has similar powers to Jean, could face a similar challenge. The title could also change by the time the season hits Netflix -- season 4's release date has yet to be revealed.
The first episode of Stranger Things has a reference to one of these issues. Will wants Dustin's copy of "X-Men 134" -- where Mastermind awakens Dark Phoenix within Jean -- if he beats Dustin home. So the Duffer brothers are clearly fans.
The Hellfire Club element wasn't used in director Simon Kinberg's X-Men: Dark Phoenix movie adaptation, which flopped at the box office earlier this year, but was seen in 2011's X-Men: First Class. In real life, it was also the name of a series of exclusive clubs where rich people allegedly engaged in acts of debauchery in the 18th century.
First published at 3:32 a.m. PT.
Updated at 4:06 a.m. PT: Adds more detail.