Stranger Things season 3 is getting another (probably much larger) time jump – 1990s, anyone?

Let’s do the time warp again! Following on from the 10-month time jump in Stranger Things season 2, things are about to go even further into the future (or past-future, anyway). While we’ll probably stay firmly rooted in the 1980s (but you never know), there’s a good reason for the leap. It has nothing to do with story reasons – the kids are just growing up so darn fast.

Yep, the Duffer Brothers are planning on doing the narrative version of ‘Haven’t you got tall!’ It’ll be like that awkward Christmas family reunion stretched out over the whole of the third season, as Ross Duffer explains to Yahoo, “It will have to be somewhat of a time gap, because the kids are, I mean, they already look so much older.”

In fact, even the current time gap between seasons 1 and 2 was down to the child actors looking a lot older. “I remember when we were originally talking about season 2, we wanted to just start it in Christmas and just go from there,” Ross says, “but then we realized the kids are just too old, so we had to jump forward.”

I’m pretty conflicted about that. As much as I like seeing slightly different eras reflected in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, surely the Duffers can ask viewers to suspend their disbelief for a season or two? Stranger Things is hardly going to be around forever – and Steve’s actor, Joe Keery, is 25. Just sayin’.

All of a sudden, though, I really want an early-‘90s Stranger Things. It could go all Toy Story 3 with the kids growing out of the things they loved before. We might not be far off either, as Matt Duffer says: “Even the latest trailer, we had to loop a line with [Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas]. He sounds like a man now. It creeps me out. He’s going to be driving to set next year.” 

“It seems very wrong,” Matt Duffer added. “The minute I see Caleb drive up, I’m probably going to pass out.” For more Stranger Things season 2 goodness, check out Netflix’s hidden Stranger Things Upside Down Easter egg and the Stranger Things' kids previously-unseen audition tapes. 

Image: Netflix