Stranger Things 3 premiere date: Netflix has your 4th of July fireworks

Happy New Years! To help you celebrate, Netflix announced the premiere date for Stranger Things 3 and released the official poster! 1428 Elm has all the latest details.

Around midnight in the eastern time zone, the official Instagram account of Stranger Things went live. I live in the central time zone. So, even though Ryan Seacrest was getting ready to count down the Ball Drop on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2019, I was scrolling through the Gram. New Years was still an hour away for me.

Speaking of Dick Clark

The Stranger Things live stream, which is now available on Netflix’s YouTube channel, was a found footage tape of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1985. The Hawkins, Indiana broadcast was being brought to us locally by Starcourt Mall. That would be the same mall that was previously teased in a trailer from July of 2018.

As the tape continued to play, there would be the occasional jump and skip. If you ever reused the same VHS tape over and over again, you would know that this was commonplace. Except at one of the skips, the image freezes on an old computer console screen.

There are a bunch of letters. It looks like one of those click bait tests where the first four words you find are the key to your new year. But, in this word jumble, seven words are highlighted for us. They read “when blue and yellow meet in the west.” This happens at the 0:15 mark.

The skip stops and we return to Dick Clark. But, what does “when blue and yellow meet in the west” mean?! Are these code names? Are we just talking about the color green?

Luckily, the Internet isn’t always a vast wasteland of sadness and data miners. Scuttlebutt on Reddit has lead to a theory. There’s a clock in that Starcourt trailer from July.

Its hands are blue and yellow. West could indicate a time closer to the sun setting, aka the afternoon. One of the times where the hands would overlap is 3:15 PM, which is the same time Mike (Finn Wolfhard) asked Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to wait for him back in season one.

At the 0:26 mark, there’s another skip. We see a console home program for Lynx Corp. We are watching someone trying to execute a command to run “SilverCatFeeds.” The letters on the console scramble as if the program name was a self destruct or encryption command. The skip ends.

We’re back with Dick Clark. At the 0:31 mark, we hear what sounds like a younger Mike yell, “Eleven!” It’s not just Mike’s voice that sounds younger.

After the events of season two, Mike may call Eleven by her real name: Jane. The real question is: Has Lynx Corp. been watching everything from the start? Is Lynx Corp. just a front for the United States Department of Energy?

As the countdown to midnight reaches its climax, the tape starts to turn Upside Down. At the 0:41 mark, the clock strikes midnight and the tape goes to test pattern.

We then get season three footage of fireworks exploding while a chorus sings Auld Lang Syne. The console font tells us that “One summer can change everything.”

A few more seconds pass and we see the date July 4th, 1985 in green. The date starts to move forward. It ends in red on July 4th, 2019. People, we have a release date!

Save the Date

The official poster for Stranger Things 3 is one of my favorite pieces of key art from the entire series to date. It’s July 4th. The fireworks from the trailer are the backdrop.

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) has his headset on and is pointing at the fireworks on one side. Together on the opposite side are Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Max (Sadie Sink). They are also looking up at the fireworks. The pairing suggests they’re still an item.

Poor Will (Noah Schapp) is doing exactly what you’d expect of him at this point. He’s looking over his shoulder. Will has discovered, or maybe felt, these two purple tinted pieces of something.

A Demogorgon? Part of The Gate? Will doesn’t know, but he’s weary of it.

In the foreground, along with the purple bits, we see Mike and Eleven/El/Jane. They’re finally able to hold hands in public alongside friends. Are they still called Mileven? Mike and Jane don’t really mix well as far as shipping names go.

I’ve got a feeling that’s not what has Mike looking at Jane with concern. As for Jane, she’s looking at the purple bits. She has a look that’s between stunned and frightened, which is never a good thing.

All of the cast shared the poster on their own Instagrams. A couple of them were sporting a t-shirt that already had the poster image on it. It’s never too early to start selling that merch. I mean, I’m going to try and get one.

And now all we have to do is wait seven months for the episodes to drop! In the meantime, I’ll be rewatching everything that’s out there, hatching theories, and requesting July 4th and July 5th off from my job.

Did you watch the Stranger Things 3 trailer yet? What did you think? Let’s discuss in the comments!