It sounds as if our return to Hawkins, Indiana will be shorter in Season 3 of Netflix’s sci-fi adventure Stranger Things. According to TV Line, Season 3 of the highly anticipated next season will be comprised of eight episodes in total.
The episode count is actually on par with the original season of the show, but one less than Season 2. While this new might come as a disappointment for fans who want to spend as much time as possible in the Upside Down, the shorter season should allow the narrative to move much more quickly without any “filler” episodes.
Of course, one could argue that these “filler” episodes allow for character and story development, so it’s really a double-edged sword. For example, one of last season’s episodes allowed sole focus on Millie Bobby Brown’s character, Eleven, as she traveled to Chicago and explored her “dark” side. This was probably one of the more divisive episodes in the season, with some commending the bold direction while others complained the one-off episode slowed the pacing of the overall narrative. Hopefully the Duffer Brothers can find a nice balance because it sounds like David Harbour has some interesting ideas for his character Hopper.
TV Line also reports that production on Season 3, which is expected to premiere sometime in 2019, will begin this upcoming spring. Not much else is known about Season 3, but the Duffer Brothers have confirmed there will be a time hop in between seasons. Asked if we'll hop into the action a little bit faster than usual given Season 2's ending with the Mind Flayer looming over the school, Matt Duffer explained:
“Even if we wanted to hop into the action faster, we couldn't. Our kids are aging. We can only write and produce the show so fast. 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. Even if we wanted it to be static and we wanted to continually recycle the same storyline — and we don't — we would be unable to, just because the kids are changing. It's cool, though. The audience is going to be able to watch these kids come of age every year. The closest example is Harry Potter. Watching those kids and actors grow up in front of the camera was, to me, very powerful. I mean, I wasn't a kid when I experienced that, and I can only imagine if you were a kid and you were their age, it would have been even more powerful. That's what I'm excited about. It's a long way of saying that yeah, we're going to do a time jump.”
Stranger Things will return to Netflix for its third season in 2019.