Stranger Things Season 3 Cast Taking Shape

Stranger Things Season 3 has been officially confirmed by Netflix.

The news certainly didn’t exactly blow anyone’s minds, considering that the show has become a certified pop culture phenomenon that has elevated itself and the aggregate of the streaming giant’s original content lineup into the stratosphere. 

But when we do get Stranger Things Season 3, there will be a little less of it than we got before, according to TV Line. The third season will consist of 8 episodes, rather than 9 (which is what we got in season 2). That is, however, the same episode count as season one. It’s rather refreshing that Stranger Things Season 3 won’t fall prey to the inflated episode counts we see on some streaming series.

Stranger Things Season 3 Cast

Obviously our regulars will be back, but Netflix dropped some welcome news on us. Priah Ferguson, who played Lucas’ little sister Erica, is now a series regular, so she’ll show up in all eight episodes this year. Considering how much fun she was in the few minutes of screentime we got with her in season two, this can only be a good thing.

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Maya Thurman-Hawke will play “an ‘alternative girl’ bored with her mundane day job. She seeks excitement in her life and gets more than she bargained for when she uncovers a dark secret in Hawkins” (description via Variety).

With this first bit of casting news, hopefully it means that the season will begin filming soon and we won’t have to wait too long.

Stranger Things Season 3 Story

“We’re thinking it will be a four-season thing and then out,” Ross Duffer told New York Magazine a while back. “We just have to keep adjusting the story,” said Matt. “Though I don’t know if we can justify something bad happening to them once a year.”

It’s true, after three straight years of monsters invading the town of Hawkins, Indiana, it might be time for the characters to pitch their tents elsewhere. “They’re going to have to get the fuck out of this town!” said Ross. “It’s ridiculous!”

Expect a time jump, though. Instead of moving from season 2’s 1983 to 1984, Stranger Things Season 3 will take place in 1985. “We can only write and produce the show so fast,” Matt Duffer told THR. “They’re going to be almost a year older by the time we start shooting season three. It provides certain challenges. You can’t start right after season two ended. It forces you to do a time jump. But what I like is that it makes you evolve the show. It forces the show to evolve and change, because the kids are changing.” 

Stranger Things Season 3 Release Date

In any case, we might have to wait a little longer for Stranger Things Season 3. The first season hit in July 2016, and the second season arrived in October 2017. We may have a similar gap this time, so don’t expect October 2018. 

“I mean, one of the things that’s annoying for fans is that it takes us a long time to do them,” David Harbour told Variety. “Like, you probably won’t get [Season 3] until sometime in 2019. But also part of the thing is, 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.”

Production is scheduled to begin in April, which means it might very well be spring or summer of 2019 before we see Stranger Things Season 3.