Warning: this post contains spoilers about Stranger Things Season 2.
Yes, we know you just spent nine hours enmeshed in the world of Stranger Things, and you're already itching for more. But seeing as the entirety of Stranger Things 2 dropped only a month ago, you're gonna have to wait a while. Naturally, those closest to the show are keeping quiet about what comes next, but we can still discern a little information from the hints they've dropped thus far. Here's everything we know.
1) It's officially happening. Netflix announced today, December 1, that Stranger Things will definitely return for a third season.
2) Yes, you're going to have to wait. Matt Duffer, one half of the Duffer Brothers (who created the show), told E! at the show's premiere in October that the Season 3 had only been in the writers' room for about two days. This means even the show's creators don't yet know exactly what's going to happen next.
3) The story is going to feel fresh. You probably noticed the end of Season 2 felt markedly different from the first one. Instead of an obvious cliffhanger, the Hawkins gang received a surprise happy ending—minus that ominous final shot of the Mind Flayer hovering over a version of the school inside the Upside Down. Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter they wanted a "clean slate" for the show's third installment: "We didn't want to box ourselves in for Season 3."
4) You haven't seen the last of the Mind Flayer. "This thing [is still out there]," Ross Duffer told THR. "They've shut the door on the Mind Flayer, but not only is it still there in the Upside Down, it's very much aware of the kids, and particularly Eleven." Given the immense power Eleven showcased while shutting the portal in the Season 2 finale, will she become responsible for ultimately destroying the Upside Down? Maybe she'll need her siblings for that...
5) Kali was the first but she won't be the last. "I think we've clearly implied there are other numbers, and I can't imagine that the world will only ever know Eleven and Eight," executive producer Shawn Levy told E!. Maybe Eleven will set out on a search for them—and hopefully take Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will with her. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matt Duffer called Season 2's divisive Episode 7, in which Eleven spends time with Kali and her friends, "a whole little other pilot episode in the middle of your season," so it sounds like they're planning more like it.
6) Prepare to leave Hawkins at some point. The Hawkins lab is closed for good, executive producers Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen told Collider, which means the action probably won't take place there in future seasons.
7) David Harbour has a lot of ideas for Hopper in Season 3, starting with more scenes with Joe Keery, who plays Steve. In a wide-ranging interview with Mashable, Harbour revealed he loves how "kinda dumb" Steve is. "I would love to play scenes with him where Hopper is just completely ripping him apart and then he walks away and Steve just calls him a dipshit under his breath or something," Harbour said. He's also looking forward to exploring Hopper's relationship with Eleven now that he's officially, legally her father. "Hopper is now the dad of a girl who's a teenager, so she's going to be going through all these changes that it's gonna be very difficult for him to guide her through," he said.
8) There will be more Erica. The best character of the new season will have a bigger role in Season 3, Ross Duffer told Yahoo. "We were able to integrate more of her in [Season 2], but not as much you want because the story [was] already going. 'We got to use more Erica'—that was one of the first things we said in the writers' room [for 3]," he said. Matt added, "I thought she's very GIF-able, if that's a word." You're damn right she is:
9) Because the stars of the show are kids who are growing up, there needs to be another time jump. "They're going to be almost a year older by the time we start shooting Season 3," Matt told THR. "It forces the show to evolve and change, because the kids are changing." Also, since Season 2 wrapped filming on June 2, 2017, Season 3 might not start filming until mid-year 2018—which could mean a mid-2019 release date. 😭😭😭
10) Eleven and Max will move on from that icy moment in Episode 9. In fact, they might even become friends. "We are excited to maybe see some more of those two together, moving forward," Matt told HelloGiggles. Ross added, "They won't be enemies," and revealed we'll be getting much more Max in the coming seasons. "We're excited [to] spend more time with Max and develop her in a way…we're sort of scratching the surface on this season of what I think she's capable of."
11) Season 3 might not focus on Will. After two seasons of dealing directly with the Upside Down and its monsters, Will Byers might finally get a reprieve from its horrors. "Maybe now we're going to give him a break," Matt told THR. But Noah Schnapp, who plays Will, doesn't think that's gonna happen, telling THR:
"I personally think it's not all out of him... There's this massive monster taking over all of Hawkins, and all you have to do is light a few fires and turn on a few heaters, and he's gone? It just doesn't make sense to me, really. He's still there—I just don't know how."
12) Papa is still alive. Way back in August 2016 Matt Duffer told IGN that Dr. Brenner survived the monster attack in Season 1:
"As an audience member watching the show, if that was his death, that would be very unsatisfying to me—when the monster jumps on him and we cut away. He would deserve much more than that as an ending."
In Season 2, we only saw him thanks to Eleven's imagination, so he'll likely make a true appearance within the action in a future season.
13) We'll probably learn more about Billy. Last time we saw Season 2's new bully, his stepsister Max was threatening his groin with a nail-decorated wooden bat if he ever bothered her or her friends again. In an interview with PopSugar, actor Dacre Montgomery revealed he had conversations about "a past and a future" for Billy while filming Season 2. "Where he's going became a discussion near the end of filming," Montgomery said. But perhaps we'll also get some flashbacks from the character in Season 3?
14) We might see Bob again. They tried to kill Bob earlier in Season 2, Ross told EW, but loved his character too much. "I will say I would love to revisit the character of Bob in some way but I don't know how to even do that," Matt revealed.
15) The Duffer Brothers know how the story ends—but don't know how many seasons are left. "We know where we want to go," Ross told E! "We're trying to figure out how long it will take to get there." Matt added, "Four [seasons] seems short, five seems long."
16) We may never find out what exactly the Upside Down is. "We're telling this story from the point of view of very human characters," Ross told THR. "There's no way they can ever truly fully understand this place."
