On Thursday, June 20, Netflix dropped the final trailer for the third installment of Stranger Things. The series became an instant hit with audiences when it first aired on Netflix in 2016, and its premise continues to center on a secret government laboratory that makes the mistake of opening an inter-dimensional portal, consequentially unleashing supernatural threats on the small town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s. As revealed in the new trailer, one of those supernatural threats, the Mind Flayer, might be here to stay.
This is a departure from the first full trailer, which dropped in March and focused primarily on the relationships between characters. All the while, the trailer left the season’s supernatural threat unnamed.
The show began with Season 1 when a group of preteens joined forces with Eleven (Milly Bobby Brown), a young girl who possesses psychokinetic powers, in order to relocate their lost friend, Will (Noah Schnapp). As the pilot season unravelled, it was revealed that Will had been lured by a monster into an alternate dimension entitled the Upside Down. This monster, while frightening at the time, proved to be a meek predecessor to season 2’s antagonist: the Mind Flayer. While the team managed to close the portal between Hawkins and the Upside Down in the season finale in an attempt to permanently defeat the creature, the final scene showed the Mind Flayer very much alive and seemingly lurking in the Upside Down.
The new trailer suggests that this assumption might be alarmingly far from the truth. Although it was already unsettling to think that the creature still lived on in any dimension, now fans will have to process an even more chilling reality: the Mind Flayer could still be lurking in Hawkins, Indiana.
The opening scenes of the trailer are paired with a deep, unsettling voiceover. “You let us in, and now you are going to have to let us stay,” it says. Eleven’s voice quickly follows with, “It doesn’t make sense. I closed the gate.” Will answers her, his words finalizing what audiences have already come to fear: “What if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us.”
The third installment of Stranger Things will be set in the summer of 1985. Fans can expect to reconnect with their favorite characters. Eleven, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathon (Charlie Heaton), Jim Hopper (David Harbour), and Joyce (Wynona Ryder) will all return in Season 3. Although it will be nice to see how their relationships change and develop under the summer sun, the final trailer solidifies the fact that this team will have to fight harder than ever to protect Hawkins against supernatural forces.
Season 3 of Stranger Things will air on Netflix on July 4, 2019.