Netflix has added a last-minute content warning to the opening episode of the final season of Stranger Things, following a school shooting in Texas that left 21 dead, including 19 children.
The first episode of the fourth season of the show will premiere worldwide on Friday, just days after the mass shooting at Robb d’Uvalde Elementary School. The season opens with a telekinetic massacre that includes the depiction of several blood-stained dead children.
“We filmed this season of Stranger Things a year ago,” the warning says. “But given the tragic recent shooting at a Texas school, viewers may find the opening scene of the first episode distressing. We are deeply saddened by this indescribable violence, and our hearts go out to every family that mourns a loved one.” .
A Netflix spokesman told the Hollywood Reporter: “We decided to add the card given the proximity of the premiere to this tragedy, and because the opening scene is very graphic.”
The warning will only be shown to U.S. viewers.
Netflix also edited the episode description to include: “Warning: Contains graphic violence involving children.”
Following the shooting of Uvalde on Tuesday, Lifetime delayed the release of the TV movie The Bad Seed Returns, about a murderous high school student, while CBS released the season finale of the FBI procedural drama, originally scheduled for broadcast that night. The episode reportedly included a story involving the possible involvement of a student in a deadly robbery.