The full-length trailer for the third season of Stranger Things has finally arrived, showing
our young heroes gearing up for what should be one of the most memorable summers of their
lives.
And it probably will be, just not for the reasons they may have hoped.
Stranger Things 3 takes place roughly six months after the events of the second season.
The trailer opens with the gang welcoming Dustin home from camp by way of a little Eleven-assisted
prank.
The trailer doesn't outright say what year the third season is set in, instead cluing
us in to what time it is with Motley Crue's 1985 hit "Home Sweet Home" playing on Dustin's
boombox.
You can also see the current year on Dustin's hat.
The name of the camp Dustin's returning from, "Camp Knowhere," seems like it might be a
reference to a location in the Guardians of the Galaxy, a franchise with its own nostalgic
ties to the '80s, from a writer-director who's made his fair share of slimy, Stranger Things-esque
creature features.
Joining the cast for season 3 is Cary Elwes, who would hold a special place in the hearts
of certain film fans forever even if he had never done anything but portray the lovelorn
Westley in the 1987 classic The Princess Bride.
"As you wish."
Elwes' role isn't so lovable this time around; he plays Mayor Kline, previously revealed
in promotional materials for Stranger Things 3 as the shady driving force behind the construction
of the new Starcourt Mall.
Character descriptions from the new season have described the character as, quote, "handsome,
slick, and sleazy… your classic '80s politician, more concerned with his own image than with
the people of the small town he governs."
So on top of all the other monstrous activity, it looks like season 3 will have something
of a political angle at work.
Also joining the cast this season is Jake Busey as Bruce, a writer for the Hawkins Post.
But he's no crusading journalist seeking to expose Mayor Kline's corruption.
His character description pegs him as a man of questionable morals with a sick sense of
humor.
We see only the briefest of shots featuring the character in the trailer, and he looks
sick, all right.
He appears to be standing in the hall inside some kind of research facility, most likely
the Hawkins National Laboratory that's connected to all of the town's interdimensional goings-on.
He's unkempt, with his tie undone, smeared with blood and sporting a twisted smile.
His appearance is the first of several clues which may hint at Hawkins' big problem this
year.
There seems to be some kind of infection going around, one which looks to have also spread
to Billy Hargrove, everyone's least-favorite evil step-brother.
Lucas' sister Erica was a comedic bright spot of Stranger Things 2, but her role was a small
one.
This season, we're going to find out a little more about her, not the least of which is
the fact that, apparently, the prospect of coming face-to-face with zombified townspeople
and horrific, spider-looking monsters doesn't freak her out in the least.
In one shot, she's seen commando-crawling through an air duct in full Die Hard mode,
wearing a makeshift miner's helmet made out of flashlights and tape.
She only appeared in four episodes of the second season, but it looks like Erica will
be a little closer to the action this time around, joining her big brother and his friends
in their unsupervised, monster-fighting activities.
Previously released promotional materials for this season have leaned heavily on cryptic
imagery and phrases, like the line "When blue and yellow meet in the West", a phrase which
has turned up in a short teaser trailer and hidden in Morse code in a behind-the-scenes
book.
What could this be referring to?
There are a of couple possibilities.
One shot in the new trailer features Eleven, all alone and wearing a yellow shirt, standing
on the beach as an eerie light illuminates the night sky.
Behind her and to the left is a blue, blue body of water; could it be that a pivotal
plot point occurs here?
It's also been pointed out that, in the "Starcourt Mall Announcement" teaser released earlier
in 2018, the hands of the clock on the mall's face also happen to be yellow and blue, indicating
that something serious might go down when the hands "meet."
The season will conclude with an episode entitled "The Battle of Starcourt," and there's more
than one shot in the trailer indicating that Hawkins' new mall is indeed going to be the
scene of some serious trouble.
One shot sees Steve, Dustin, Erica, and newcomer Robin, a co-worker of Steve's at the food
court ice cream shop, barricaded behind a set of the mall's sliding doors.
Another shot shows the whole gang battered, bloody, and looking ready to take on whatever
adversary has invaded their new shopping center.
We also seem to have gotten a bit of clarification on the title of episode three, "The Case of
the Missing Lifeguard."
An early sequence reveals that Billy has a new job as a lifeguard at the local pool,
and he exchanges a flirty glance with a cute co-worker who passes by him.
This same girl is seen very briefly in that closing montage, seemingly being dragged into
the depths of the Upside Down as Billy watches helplessly.
Could this be the incident which leads to the onset of Billy's unfortunate condition?
Either way, it looks like the evils of the Upside Down are once again making an effort
to break through into the real world, and Eleven seems to once again be the only person
who can stop it.
The powerful psychic is shown getting sucked into the Upside Down, confronting some kind
of force in that shot on the beach, and standing blindfolded with a slight nosebleed in front
of a freezer chock full of the one thing she's never been able to resist, Eggo waffles.
But most tellingly, the spot's final moments see her in that same yellow shirt, face full
of righteous anger, nose bleeding like a faucet, facing off against that grotesque spider-thing.
Let's hope she gets to have at least one Eggo first.
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