'Stranger Things' Season 3 Is Happening, Which Basically Means More Steve Harrington

This is hardly a huge surprise, but it's still great news for people who have come to love Hawkins, Indiana, as if it were their own scary town. Stranger Things has been renewed for Season 3 at Netflix, which means more terrifying monsters are probably set to escape from the Upside Down. But, more importantly, this also means more Steve Harrington, the breakout MVP of Stranger Things Season 2. And thank Farrah Fawcett hairspray for that.

The announcement of the renewal came Friday, just over a month after the show's second season was released on Oct. 27. Which means that it's still early days, and there's not much official information as far as when Season 3 might hit the streaming platform, or what eerie secrets a third trip to Hawkins might reveal. But if there's one thing the hit series has taught us, it's how to get to the bottom of a mystery.

First, let's talk about potential Season 3 release dates. Have the Duffer Brothers even teased us with one yet? No way. But we can look at the fact that Season 2 was released about a year and two months after the original season's renewal, and, for that reason, we can speculate that we might see Season 3 of Stranger Things as early as January 2019. And, luckily, when it comes to possible content, we have even more information.

As you probably recall, there was a time jump between Seasons 1 and 2; the first episode of the latter picked up about a year after the final episode of the former. The show's creators confirm that that will be the case for the third season as well, and it's for a very practical reason. As Matt Duffer shared in a Hollywood Reporter interview at the end of October:

"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."

If you thought you knew exactly where the plot was headed after we left things with the Mind Flayer exerting his powerful influence on the Middle School, think again. The series won't be picking up right after the Snow Ball dance, and it could go in an entirely new direction. After feeling a bit limited by what they set up in the Season 1 finale, the Duffers wanted to make sure that they left all avenues open for themselves going forward. Matt continued:

"Last year, we had a lot of little cliffhangers at the end of the season. We didn't want to do that again. We didn't want to box ourselves in for season three. We wanted to be able to start season three on a very clean slate."

Translation: you have no idea what's coming, only that it is coming. It could be more Barb (please let it somehow be more Barb), another breakout heartthrob like Joe Keery, or something entirely new that we haven't even imagined yet.

The only thing that's certain is that Season 3 is well and truly coming our way — and almost certainly a Season 4, as well, since we're talking about it, so you can likely breathe easy for one more year.

After that, though, it's anybody's game. Enjoy these glorious years of more Stranger Things on the horizon while they're still here. After all, you can't avoid the Upside Down forever...