The season stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, and Cara Buono.

In the summer of 1985, the newly opened Starcourt Mall in Hawkins has become the center of attention in town, causing other stores to close their business due to its popularity.

"[23] The Duffer Brothers anticipate having about four to five seasons to work with, but do want to "have a really finite ending" while the series is still at a height of success, according to Matt, rather than letting it draw out indefinitely.

"[35] The early pitch documents for the season featured a scene that had the Mind Flayer monster rampaging through the Hawkins Fourth of July Parade, but the idea was later scrapped as the scripts were written.

[36] The third season sees Ryder, Harbour, Wolfhard, Brown, Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Schnapp, Sink, Dyer, Heaton, Buono, Keery, and Montgomery return.

They secured a portion of the mall that had been vacant for some time, redressing the storefronts and food court to feature brands of the 80s, paying attention to which stores likely had made it to Indiana by 1985.

[45] A custom-built grid cloth was employed to completely block sunlight from entering the atrium of the food court to enable filming night scenes during the day.

[46] In addition to the aforementioned sets, filming also occurred at pre-existing structures dressed as the Hawkins town hall and Mayor Kline's house.

[46] On September 27, 2018, Brown was spotted filming an emotional scene with stunt doubles and a child dressed in a baseball uniform at a beach in Malibu, California.

[48] Regarding the lengthy hiatus between the second and third seasons, Netflix programming executive Cindy Holland noted "[the Duffer Brothers and Shawn Levy] understand the stakes are high.

"[49] Heading into production for the first season of Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers intended on shooting a number of special effects using practical methods.

Graff noted it was impractical and too expensive to 3D print a rough replica of the physical "Shadow Monster/Mindflayer", as had been done with creatures in the previous season, especially considering the monster is essentially "something the size of a T-Rex invading a shopping mall.

Graff eventually went out and purchased "the largest object [he] could think of" — a blow-up beach ball — and taped it to the end of a twenty-foot boom pole so he could "puppeteer the ‘head’ enough to provide an eyeline for the actors while also giving camera operators a shot at framing for and tracking the creature's movements.

‘I need you to roar – and you can’t let yourself be intimidated by the fact you’re wearing a ridiculous red spandex suit with a giant silver ball helmet.’ He told me, ‘Don’t worry, Paul, I’ve got this – I’ll deliver for you’ – and then he sure did.

The finale of the episode "E Pluribus Unum", particularly the scenes involving Eleven's telepathic encounter with the Mind Flayer-possessed Billy, contains excerpts of "Confrontation and Rescue" from the second act of Satyagraha by Philip Glass.

Of note was the use of "The NeverEnding Story", the theme to the 1984 film of the same name, which is used in the final episode when Suzie refuses to provide the critical code until Dustin sings it to her.

[54] As their characters were not meant to be in that much synchronization due to being in two different places, the song's backing track and some autotuning were used to blend their singing to their respective settings and the tone of the soundtrack.

[54] As a result of its appearance in the series, "The NeverEnding Story" drew an 800% increase in viewership and streaming requests on YouTube and Spotify over the days after initial broadcast, putting Limahl, the song's artist, briefly back in the spotlight.

[59][60][61] The "commercial" lists some of the stores found in the mall[62] as well as restaurants in the "state-of-the-art" food court, and closes with Steve (Joe Keery) and Robin (Maya Hawke) saying "Ahoy!"

[64][65] On December 31, pedestrians in New York City's Times Square noticed a video playing on a loop advertising a special announcement "sponsored" by the Starcourt Mall.

[67] The season's first poster, featuring a menacing creature slowly approaching the cast while they're enjoying Independence Day festivities, was released concurrently with the teaser.

[68][66][67] On March 19, 2019, the official Stranger Things social media accounts posted a short clip of rats scurrying through a dilapidated industrial area with the caption "It's almost feeding time.

[73][74] The clip, which features Billy flirting with Karen Wheeler at the local pool, includes notable references to the early-1980s comedy films Caddyshack and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The festival also boasted a replica of the Palace Arcade filled with retro coin-ops – such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Dig Dug.

The site's critical consensus states, "Vibrant and charming, Stranger Things transforms itself into a riveting—if familiar—summer ride that basks in its neon-laden nostalgia without losing sight of the rich relationships that make the series so endearing.

[99] Ed Power of The Telegraph blamed Duffer Brothers for refusing "to stray from the Goonies-meets-Stephen King formula" and recycling their "well-worn bag of retro references to increasingly underwhelming effect", producing the limpest installment of the three.

[100] His opinion was echoed by Hank Stuever of The Washington Post, who felt almost heartbroken for "the Duffers working so hard to re-create an elusive vibe" of the 1980s with a "mishmash of ingredients" only to fail to create a fully entertaining show.