When Stranger Things fans got their first big info about Season 3, it came in the form of a 1980s-style video introducing Hawkins residents to the new Starcourt Mall, which boasts all kinds of entertaining shops and eateries. The video ended by saying the mall would be opened in Summer 2019, which some fans suspected was Netflix's way of announcing that Season 3 wouldn't arrive until next summer. Well, that news was confirmed by Netflix's Vice President of Original Content Cindy Holland, who went on to give an explanation for the untimely holdup.
It's a handcrafted show. The Duffer brothers and Shawn Levy have worked really hard, and they understand the stakes are high. They want to deliver something bigger and better than what they did last year. And so they really want to take the time to get it right. . . . I think it's going to be a fantastic season. It's gonna be worth the wait.
It's hard to patently refute anything that Cindy Holland said to press at this year's TCA summer event, via TVLine. If anyone knows just how passionate and outspoken the Stranger Things fanbase is, it's co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer, who have taken major flak for killing off Barb, for killing off Bob, for Eleven's spinoff-esque episode, and more. They've even faced a lawsuit from someone claiming they stole the show's central concept. Obviously, producer and director Shawn Levy has been a part of all that as well, and there probably isn't a single person on the creative team who went into Season 3 thinking it was just a run-of-the-mill season of TV. And quality takes time.
Plus, it doesn't take a super deep and involved study of Stranger Things to know that it relies heavily on the use of practical special effects and CGI for its more monstrous spectacles and sequences. (And school dances.) And since the goal seems to be to always go bigger and broader than the previous season, we can probably expect the Mind Flayer and other dark entities to become even more prevalent and dangerous in Season 3. Which necessarily means more time being needed to get all the effects just right, and to get Hopper's mustache perfect.
Of course, it's definitely worth noting that Stranger Things' third season is going back to just eight episodes, which is one less than Season 2. So one might think that having fewer episodes to work on would make for a shorter production time, but knowing the Duffer brothers, they probably balanced things by making the other eight episodes that much longer and more action-packed than they would have been otherwise. Basically, fans are likely going to be pumped with whatever they bring to the table for Season 3, but the wait to get there may turn more impatient viewers upside-down with anticipation.
As hinted at, Stranger Things Season 3 will make its big debut on Netflix at some point during Summer 2019. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the canonical comic book series that'll be coming out later this year, as it will go into some of the narrative details that got left out of the TV show. And then be sure to bookmark our summer premiere schedule and our fall premiere schedule to keep up with all the great shows coming soon.
