“One summer can change everything.” That’s true for any group of kids who are growing up and finding out life will never be the same as they enter their teenage years. But as the first trailer for Stranger Things 3 shows, those changes are a little different—and a whole lot scarier—in Hawkins, Indiana, where terror lurks around every mall corner.
It’s finally here, the first look at the long-awaited third season of Stranger Things, and it has everything we want: comedy, heartbreak, and a whole lot of horror. This first trailer for the season also uses one of the show’s best nostalgic references yet: some kickass music, including a perfect use of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” a fitting choice with a mall being turned into a battleground against all new monsters.
The first half of this trailer focuses on one of the show’s most important elements: personal relationships of kids and adults alike. The boys are getting older and finding that with age comes a natural splitting of old ways among friends. It seems to be hitting some of them, mostly the ones without girlfriends, harder than the rest. They aren’t the only ones dealing with new romantic interests though, as we see Joyce and Hooper both alone, though possibly together soon.But the show’s most important relationship (as far as we’re concerned) seems to still be intact: Dustin and his pseudo-dad/protector/buddy Steve. That fondness could pay dividends when the new Starcourt Mall comes under attack by a strange new creature that looks even more horrifying than a demogorgon. Could it be the byproduct of those rats we see running through the town? They do live underground where Eleven fought off the show’s monsters in the season two finale.
That’s just one part of the action-packed promo. No one looks to be safe as chaos reigns supreme over old and new characters alike. Stranger Things 3 comes to Netflix on July 4.
Featured Image: Netflix