Stranger Things series 3: Netflix's monster-sized hit will turn your summer upside down

Prepare to be afraid — Stranger Things is back on Thursday and it’s the eeriest instalment yet. From nefarious politicians to demon dramas, the supernatural hit will turn your summer upside down, finds Jimi Famurewa   

Ah, the unmistakable signs of a long-craved-for summer. Sunlit beer gardens. Thrumming parks. A returning TV blockbuster that makes you want to stay in and draw the curtains like an actual vampire.

Oh, yes. Pop in an Eggo waffle, fire up some brooding synth pop and dig out that wine-stained Eleven costume you wore for Halloween three years ago: this Thursday, Stranger Things is back for a long-awaited third series.

But, given the show’s nearly two-year hiatus and an increasingly diffuse small screen landscape, do you actually remember much about the Eighties-set tale of nerdy bike-riding kids, nefarious government officials and interdimensional monsters? Are you up to speed on the fresh supernatural threat facing Hawkins, Indiana, as the action moves into the era of New Coke and intensified Cold War paranoia?

And what about the nostalgic tie-ins, mild off-set controversies and plans for the future of a show where the young cast are ageing faster than their onscreen counterparts? Well, that’s where we come in. From a Trumpian new character to a video game spin-off, here’s a (slightly spoilery) guide to everything you need to know about the return of Netflix’s monster-sized hit.

Even eerier Indiana

Netflix

Just as Stranger Things 2 jumped forwards almost a year, these eight episodes see the drama fast forward from autumn 1984 to the summer of 1985.

There’s a sparkling new shopping centre called the Starcourt Mall; everyone is splashing about in the Hawkins pool; poor, perpetually imperilled Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is safe for now; and the main gang of once-dorky kids are succumbing to the pubescent hormones flooding their bodies (more on this in a moment). All is happy, basically.

Until, of course, Demogorgon-like creatures start emerging in guises that both familiar and unfamiliar, and draw various characters together to fight an evil that is doing some seriously weird things to the town’s rodent population.

Showrunners the Duffer Brothers are keeping the specifics of the new threat very secret, but they have namechecked David Cronenberg and called it their “grossest” season yet. Best eat that Deliveroo order before you press play.

Summer loving

Netflix

Are you one of those Game Of Thrones fans still mildly traumatised by the sight of adorable little Arya Stark jumping under the covers with Gendry? You’re in for quite a rough ride. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Max (Sadie Sink) are a bickering item, trucker-hatted Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) has met a girl at summer camp and, perhaps most troublingly, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are at the “furiously necking to soft rock” stage of their fledgling relationship.

And it’s not just the younger characters offering sexual tension alongside the usual CGI scares. Max’s dirtbag brother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery with an objectively revolting wispy tache) is making eyes at Mike’s mum, while Steve (Joe Keery, hair as fabulous as ever) could well end up with snarky new character Robin (aka Maya ‘son of Ethan and Uma Thurman’ Hawke). It’s basically Love Island with added gore and telekinesis.

Make Hawkins Great Again

TV shows to watch in 2019

1/31

Though the new series delivers the usual Eighties nostalgia (Magnum PI! Atari! Clothes that wouldn’t look out of place in Urban Outfitters!), many of its plot threads have a modern resonance.

The Starcourt Mall scenes (filmed in retrofied areas of the Gwinnett Place Mall near Atlanta) touch on the fact that these glossy, corporate behemoths were the Amazon of their day; retail Goliaths that wiped out the small, independently run local stores that couldn’t compete.

Workplace sexism is explored as Mike’s big sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) takes on some cartoonishly grotesque chauvinists at the town paper. And just in time for the ramp up of campaigning for America’s 2020 elections, there is a new political figure who bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain blowhard-in-chief. Larry Kline is the venal, image-obsessed Hawkins mayor who takes over Fourth of July celebrations and makes them about himself.

The Duffers have said Kline isn’t meant to be a Trump stand-in. But, as Cary Elwes (the actor who plays him) has noted: “[He] just happens to be blond and full of himself and likes the sound of his own voice.” Brace for extremely calm 3am tweets about “failing Netflix” and its “really nasty show”.

​Immersion therapy

It wouldn’t be Stranger Things without a mountain of Hawkins-themed marketing collaborations, aimed squarely at the wallets of impressionable fans.

This series, they range from the savvy (a limited-run relaunch of the infamously disastrous New Coke) and the chic (an H&M capsule collection, including a Hawkins Pool lifeguard costume) to the shameless (a US-only ‘Upside Down Whopper’ that is an inverted burger). Thursday also brings Stranger Things 3: The Game — an old school beat-’em-up that (finally) lets you take out bad guys as a 16-bit Winona Ryder.

Want something a little less pixelated? Secret Cinema will turn a London venue into Hawkins locations for four months. It doesn’t start until November 13, so you have time to create a Demogorgon costume.

The kids are (mostly) alright

Netflix

Unanticipated pieces of cast scandal have become a reliable feature of Stranger Things’s publicity tours. In 2017, it was British actor Charlie Heaton (who plays Jonathan Byers, outcast elder brother of Will) getting detained at LAX airport after traces of cocaine were allegedly found in his luggage.

This year it was an announcement about one actor’s hidden camera show. The news that Matarazzo would host and executive produce Prank Encounters — a Netflix series that subjects unwitting gig economy employees to the first day from hell — caused many to question the optics of a wealthy actor toying with low-wage workers’ lives.

Both Matarazzo and Netflix were moved to release statements, clarifying that all participants were paid, knew in advance the ‘job’ would be a one-day affair and “had a great time”. We’ll be able to judge for ourselves when the show airs later this year. But Matarazzo’s new career as a sort of Gen Z Jeremy Beadle has taken an undoubted hit.

Don’t be a stranger

So how long can the show’s creators keep conjuring demons and mining Reaganite America for pop cultural references? Well, there will almost certainly be a fourth series.

(There was even a scrapped plan to film both series three and four concurrently, with the thinking being that they should capitalise on the show while the lead cast — who range in age from 14 to 17 — still look like plausible 13-year-olds.)

From there, things get murky. Executive producer Shawn Levy said there was “very much the possibility of a season beyond [the fourth] one” but that beyond that it gets more unlikely. We shall see.

But it’s worth noting that the original pitch for Stranger Things (at that point called Montauk in a tribute to the town that inspired Jaws) mentioned a possible follow-up set a decade later in the Nineties, and tracking the kids as they become “young adults with new problems”. Good news for everyone, then. Except poor Will Byers.

​Stranger Things series three is on Netflix on July 4.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in