DEADLINE – Netflix has made it official, giving a third-season order to its hottest show Stranger Things.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, the 1980s nostalgia-filled horror series was an instant breakout when it debuted last year, quickly becoming a pop culture phenomenon and overnight turning Millie Bobby Brown into a star. Underscoring the show’s mega-hit status, Netflix bought time during the most watched broadcast on television, this year’s Super Bowl, to unveil the first Season 2 trailer.
Season 2 launched with a bang last month. While Netflix does not reveal viewership information, according to Nielsen, the first episode drew an eye-popping 15.8 million U.S. viewers in the first three days of release, with all nine new episodes averaging 4 million viewers over the three-day period.
Stranger Things, which won the 2017 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, stars Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, David Harbour as Chief Jim Hopper, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Brown as Eleven, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, Dacre Montgomery as Billy, and Sadie Sink as Max, among others. It is yet unclear if all will be coming back next season.
The Duffer Brothers serve as executive producers and directors along with Shawn Levy (who also directs), Dan Cohen and Iain Patterson. Stranger Things is a Netflix production, the first series owned by the streaming service to hit it big.
Stranger Things is a rare commercial and critical hit. This year, it received 18 Emmy nominations (with five wins). It also received the 2017 Norman Felton Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television — Drama from the Producers Guild of America.
