'Stranger Things' Season 3 Will Debut July 4

Netflix got 2019 started with a bang as it announced the return date for its smash series “Stranger Things .”

The streaming service is set to release the third season of the horror/science fiction hit July 4. The date was confirmed Jan. 1 with an Independence Day–themed poster showing Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown) holding hands with Mike (Finn Wolfhard) as other characters admire fireworks bursting in the distance. 

“One summer can change everything,” the tagline reads. Fans will note that this is a departure from the show’s two previous seasons, which were set in fall and winter.  

The poster hit the internet at the same time as a new teaser trailer, which pairs eerily distorted video of Dick Clark counting down to the new year of 1985 (when the show is set) with type on a computer screen and footage of fireworks. 

Though specifics of the third season of “Stranger Things” have been kept under wraps, Netflix ’s Cindy Holland told Deadline in July 2018 that fans can expect “more special effects” when the series returns this summer.

“It’s a handcrafted show,” said Holland , the service’s vice president of original content. She added that the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, and executive producer and director Shawn Levy “understand the stakes are high. They want to deliver something bigger and better than what they did last year. And so they really want to take the time to get it right.”  

Meanwhile, Matt and Ross Duffer have hinted that they may conclude the Emmy-winning series after its fourth or fifth season. 

“We’re thinking it will be a four-season thing and then out,” Ross Duffer told Vulture last year. “They’re going to have to get the fuck out of this town! It’s ridiculous!”