STRANGER THINGS 3 Life’s about turn upside-down again for the TV favourites
Life is about to turn ‘Upside Down’ all over again for our favourites
Some things have changed in Hawkins, Indiana (there’s a new mall!), and some things haven’t (the Upside Down is still creepy AF!). The third instalment of Stranger Things picks up in the summer of 1985 with the core group of kids – Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Max (Sadie Sink) –battling a heartless new monster: puberty. “We wanted to explore the theme of change,” says Matt Duffer, who created the series with his brother Ross. “The season takes place during the last summer before high
school. The kids are growing up, and that transition is going to be messy and awkward and painful. Are they able to grow up without growing apart?” Oh, and their hometown is still a hotspot for a lot of interdimensional terror. “Eleven closed the Gate, but the Mind Flayer is still alive in the Upside Down,” teases Matt. “It will find another way into Hawkins … it’s just a matter of time.”
Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour), rocking a Magnum P.I. look complete with ’stache and occasional Hawaiian shirt, is struggling to raise telekinetic teen Eleven, who’s now in a relationship with Mike. “It thrusts him into a discussion with Joyce [Winona Ryder],” says Harbour. “She’s able to offer me some advice on how to deal with being a single parent and how to, like, you know, stop being so damn controlling.” Unfortunately, parenthood has not been kind to the sheriff ’s fitness level. “This season, Hopper does a lot of really big, like, action-y things,” says Harbour. “But he’s fatter than you’ve ever seen him and less capable of hurting people, but a little more capable because he’s just like a big elephant.”
The surprising bromance of Steve (Joe Keery) and Dustin will also get plenty of screen time. “You definitely see more of that,” says Matarazzo. “That’s what I really like about Matt and Ross: they know what fans like and they roll with it.” But in true Stranger Things form, the laughs are mixed with a healthy amount of scares. The Duffers cite Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Thing, Romancing the Stone, Midnight Run, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and David Cronenberg as inspirations for ST3. “This is our most unapologetically fun season,” says Ross. “Yet at the same time, it is also our most horrifying and intense season. It’s this wild mix of tones that we think really sets this season apart.”
“(The Duffer brothers) know what fans want”
— Matarazzo