Update: December 1, 2017
Duffer Brothers' STRANGER THINGS Renewed for Season 3 at Netflix
Netflix is returning to the Upside Down. The streaming giant has renewed the Duffer brothers' breakout hit
Stranger Things for a third season. A return date has not yet been determined for the supernatural drama about the happenings brimming beneath the surface of a small American town.
While Netflix — like fellow streamers Amazon and Hulu — does not release viewership information, measurement leader Nielsen cited an audience of 15.8 million viewers who watched the season two premiere within three days of its launch. (And nearly 11 million of them were among the key adults 18-49 demographic.) Nielsen also found that 361,000 Netflix subscribers streamed the entire nine-episode second season within 24 hours of its debut. (Netflix declined comment on the Nielsen findings.)
Stranger Things 2 also was crowned the most popular show in the country, according to data company Parrot Analytics.
Still, even without ratings from Netflix,
Stranger Things ranks as the service's biggest franchise. The series, which collected 18 Emmy nominations (taking home five) is pulling Netflix into a new business with a series of licensing deals for clothing, posters, toys and collectibles. Given the breakout success of the show (which is owned in-house) and lucrative licensing deals, the show's child stars are said to be banding together to renegotiate their contracts for upcoming seasons.
In September, sources told
THR that stars Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin each got $30,000 per episode for the first and second seasons with a bonus — less than six figures — once it became clear that the show was a phenomenon. While the cast is signed for six years, talent reps say a renegotiation will happen in early 2018. One question yet to be addressed: whether the show's breakout, 13-year-old Brown, will negotiate separately from the other young stars.
'Stranger Things' Renewed for Season 3 at Netflix