Stranger Things Season 3: Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Plot, Episodes, and News

Stranger Things Season 3 is coming to Netflix. 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. Plenty of cast announcements have been made, and the new season will be here soon.

For the latest, scroll down to the poster section to check out spectacular stuff revealed in the latest teaser poster.

Stranger Things Season 3 Release Date

It’s official! We finally have a Stranger Things season 3 premiere date and it’s July 4, giving us another holiday-themed opening as with season 2’s Halloween setting.

Stranger Things Season 3 Cast

Obviously, the show’s regulars will be back, but Netflix also named some newcomers.

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.

Stranger Things season 3 will present another important archetype of ’80s filmdom: the popular teenage lifeguard. Francesca Reale (best known for starring in Netflix’s Haters Back Off) is joining the cast in a recurring role as Hawkins Community Pool lifeguard Heather. Heather will become a centerpiece of season three’s mystery, according to a Deadline report.

Cary Elwes (Saw) will play Mayor Kline. The character is described as “handsome, slick, and sleazy, your classic ’80s politician — more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town he governs.” However, it was not specified if Kline presides over the show’s town setting of Hawkins, Indiana.

further reading: Stranger Things: What We Learned from the Suspicious Minds Prequel Novel

Jake Busey (The Frighteners) has been cast for the role of Bruce. The character seems to be right up the actor’s alley, described as “a journalist for The Hawkins Post with questionable morals and a sick sense of humor.”

Maya Thurman-Hawke will play “an ‘alternative girl’ named Robin 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).

Stranger Things Season 3 Trailer

The first full length trailer for Stranger Things Season 3 is here! Stranger Things trailers rarely disappoint and this one is no exception. There’s a lot crammed into these three minutes. Looks like Eleven didn’t close the gate as carefully as she thought.

Here’s an earlier trailer for Stranger Things season 3 entitled “Summer in Hawkins” in which the ladies of Hawkins eagerly await Billy’s turn as lifeguard.

And here was the first full-length trailer. Watch it below:

And here are the other teasers released so far:

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!”

further reading: 35 Things You Didn’t Know About Stranger Things

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.”

Star Noah Schnapp told Variety that viewers can expect Stranger Things season 3 to blend some of the more successful elements of the previous two seasons. “Season one, I feel like, was more playful,” Schnapp said. “Season two was a lot darker. And then season three does really well blending them together, and that’s what I love about it.”

There might also be rats.

We wrote more about what we expect from the Stranger Things season 3 story right here.

Stranger Things Season 3 Episodes

In what is becoming a fun little yearly tradition, Netflix has released a video containing the titles for each of Stranger Thing Season 3’s eight episodes. Take a look below.

The episode names are pretty vague towards the beginning of the season but a finale called “The Battle of Starcourt”  is certainly eye-opening. Here is the full list in case you couldn’t make it through an exhausting one-minute video.

1. Suzie, Do You Copy?

2. The Mall Rats

3. The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

4. The Sauna Test

5. The Source

6. The Birthday

7. The Bite

8. The Battle of Starcourt

Stranger Things Season 3 Soundtrack

Per a Netflix press release, Stranger Things Season 3 is going its own physical soundtrack release. Available on July 5, the day after Season 3 premieres, the soundtrack will include 15 time period appropriate tracks to help score the Stranger Things summer and a bonus original song. Here is the track list.

1. Baba O’Riley – The Who

2. Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones

3. Material Girl – Madonna

4. Cold as Ice – Foreigner

5. She’s Got You – Patsy Cline

6. R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s Rock) – John Mellencamp

7. Neutron Dance – The Pointer Sisters

8. Can’t Fight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon

9. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – Wham!

10. My Bologna – “Weird Al” Yankovic

11. Moving In Stereo – The Cars

12. Never Surrender – Corey Hart

13. Lovergirl – Teena Marie

14. Workin’ for a Livin’ – Huey Lewis & The News

15. We’ll Meet Again – Vera Lynn

16. Never Ending Story – Gaten Matarazzo, Gabriella Pizzolo

The soundtrack will be available on CD, vinyl, and digital.

Stranger Things Season 3 Posters and Photos

With just a week to go, Netflix has released an impressive new poster for the third season of Stranger Things, featuring a frightening new creature that makes the Demogorgon look like a poodle.

Netflix has released some stills from Stranger Things Season 3 as well. Give them a look below!

Michael Ahr is a writer, reviewer, and podcaster here at Den of Geek; you can check out his work here or follow him on Twitter. Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.