You might have just finished binge-watching your way through Season 2 of Stranger Things, but if you're raring to get back into the world of the Upside Down and find out what happens to Eleven and the gang, here's everything you need to know about Season 3.
What will happen in Stranger Things Season 3?
According to Natalie Dyer, who plays Nancy, lots of things, including the potential for Barb's character to be revisited, and a closer look at Jonathan and Nancy's complicated relationship.
"The whole Barb thing,” Natalia Dyer began to ELLE.com, "I don’t think she feels completely validated, I don’t think that’s over. I think there’s still more there that feels wrong and off, and I don’t know if you can ever fix that.”
On the topic of Jancy - that's Jonathan and Nancy, of course - she added, "It’ll be really interesting to see what happens. There’s a little push-pull, there’s some tension there. I feel like they probably fight a lot. I don’t know where they’re going to be because it’ll be sometime later since we’ve seen them, so who knows what’s happened after where we left them."
Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter they wanted a "clean slate" for the show's third instalment ("We didn't want to box ourselves in for Season 3"), which suggests it won't be a direct follow on from series 2.
The show's creators have been sparse about details, explaining that they had barely even had a chance to think about the third instalment of Stranger Things .
"We're maybe two days into the writer's room. It's so fresh," shared Matt Duffer to E! News. "I'm scared if I say anything because even this early on things change so dramatically. We know where we want to go, but we're trying to figure out still how long it will take to get there."
Will there be new characters in Stranger Things series 3?
Yep! According to That Hashtag Show, there are at least three -
Mayor Larry Kline, described as a "classic, 80's style slick politician" who is "pathetic and driven only by his own interests."
Bruce, "a morally compromised news reporter in his 50s", described as "outwardly sexist, overweight and bedraggled".
Patricia Brown, who the website say will be a sweet elderly neighbour whom spends "a lot of time tending to her garden and offering her advice to the neighbourhood kids."
First things first, Stranger Things 3 is officially happening. Hooray!
You'll be pleased to hear that Netflix have just confirmed that they will be making season 3. The streaming giant made the announcement today (December 1) after posting a poll asking whether the show should be renewed.
They then replied: "FOR THE LOVE OF STEVE, DUH! So hold tight baby darts — season 3 is officially happening."
But when? When will Stranger Things be back?
According to David Harbour (better known as Hawkins' Chief Hopper), the next season might not air until 2019.
"One of the things that’s annoying for fans is that it takes us a long time to do them," he told Variety in a new interview. "Like, you probably won’t get [Season 3] until sometime in 2019."
Speaking of the Duffer Brothers, who created and write Stranger Things, he added, "Like any good thing, they need time. And those guys work so hard. I mean, they just sit in their apartment and write for 12, 14 hours a day.”
Who will star in Stranger Things Season 3?
We can assume the likes of Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) and Noah Schnapp (Will) will be back at the centre of the story again.
The Duffer Brothers stress that although they're still in "very early days" of breaking down the story for next season, they've already been thinking about casting, and the chances are we haven't seen the last of Eleven's sister Kali, played by Linnea Berthelsen.
"It feels weird to me that we wouldn't solve [Kali's] storyline," Matt Duffer told The Hollywood Reporter. "I would say chances are very high she comes back. [Millie Bobby Brown and Berthelsen] had, I think, a really powerful connection."
There's no confirmation of whether Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) and Joe Keery (Steve) will be back, especially considering they've all graduated from high school now so the reasons for staying in Hawkins are minimised. But then again, that's a love triangle we really need to know about.
As is the dynamic between Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Chief Hopper (David Harbour), so surely they'll be back too?
When will Stranger Things Season 3 be released?
As of yet, Netflix haven't given us a release date, but fans are speculating that it will be at least another year.
Season two was announced last year alongside a release date, and that came around a year and a bit after the first – so we may be eyeing a 2019 release at this rate.
Co-creator Ross Duffer said in an interview with Vulture "We’re thinking it will be a four-season thing and then out."
How many episodes will Stranger Things Season 3 have?
Considering the cast of Stranger Things haven't even started filming Season 3 yet, there's no talk of how many episodes there'll be. Season 1 contained eight episodes, and Season 2 contained nine, so here's to hoping they continue to follow that pattern and it features 10!
Speaking of how the gap between filming will impact the storyline, Matt Duffer told THR, "[The kids] going to be almost a year older by the time we start shooting Season 3. It forces the show to evolve and change, because the kids are changing."
EXCITING.
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment Editor at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.
