Stranger Things Season 3 is a grueling 6 long moths away. As a New Year's surprise, Netflix finally announced the release date, offering up a mysterious new poster and a creepy teaser that crashes Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. It's all pretty exciting, especially if you are a huge Strange Things freak, who has been waiting for what seems like an eternity for new episodes to arrive.

One summer can change everything. Stranger Things 3 will premiere on July 4, 2019, only on Netflix, promising some huge fireworks for the summer time holiday. Last time, Season 2 arrived for Halloween. This time around, these new episodes are going to be set squarely in the middle of summer, with the 4th of July holiday serving as a centerpiece to the action.

The poster teases that something strange is coming to Hawkins in the summer of 1985. Dustin, Lucas, Max and Will are enjoying the local fireworks display. Mike is in love with Eleven. But Ele senses something is not right. And in the shadow creeps a new kind of monster.

The release date announcement teaser serves as a special kind of time capsule. It takes us back to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. We're watching the show on Channel 5, WIYZ from Hawkins, Indiana, which is brought to us locally by Starcourt Mall. Dick is just thirty seconds from the ball dropping in the big apple to ring in 1985. It is one of the biggest crowds Dick has ever seen. But it is all interrupted by an eerie transmission. There is a coded message.

"When Blue and Yellow Meet in the West."

Whatever could that mean? We don't find out as the transmission cuts back to the big ball drop. Before the lit up apple can clumsily make its way down the pole circa 1985 technology, the screen cuts back to another coded message. There is a word. We don't know what it means.

"Silvercatfeeds."

Silvercatfeeds is a secret computer program. And by all accounts, it looks to have been initiated. As the big ball drop transmission comes back, the image is meet with alien static. We can hear Mike calling out for Eleven. The timeshare broadcast is slowly flipped upside down. The transmission cuts to upside down color bars. Then we get upside down fireworks, which is all quite unnerving. We are taken out of the broadcast with a sketchy computerized version of Auld Lang Syne as the July 4, 2019 release date is confirmed. The end title card takes fans back to the iconic Stranger Things theme song.

Not much about the story has been revealed yet. We know it will take place in the summer, and that Starcourt Mall is at the center of the action. There will be a fireworks celebration, a tribute to the 1985 classic comedy Fletch, and Eleven will get to experience the beach (yes, Illinois does have a few beaches, believe it or not) for the first time. The entire season is going to end with the Battle for Starcourt, which was teased in set images and later an episode reveal teaser, promising one hell of a finale. So, get ready. It's really happening.

Stranger Things Season 3 Character Posters