'Stranger Things' Season 3 Release Date May Mean 'Dawn of the Dead' Homage

Stranger Things fans, we finally have some really good Season 3 spoilers. Netflix released a new teaser, and while it may not include any footage to whet your appetite, it lists all the Season 3 episode titles fans. Based on that information, we may already have our first major Stranger Things spoiler.

Potential spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3 below.

First off, in case you missed the news, the episode titles are: “Suzie, Do You Copy?,” “The Mall Rats,” “The Case of the Missing Lifeguard,” “The Sauna Test,” “The Source,” “The Birthday,” “The Bite,” and “The Battle of Starcourt.” (You can also see them in the video above.)

“In the summer of 1985, the adventure continues,” the teaser reveals before confirming Season 3 will be available in 2019. An exact release date has yet to be announced.

Fans are already speculating that “Suzie” in the premiere title is a codename for Eleven, since the kids used “Do you copy?” over their Supercoms (walkie-talkies).

But what’s clear from these episode titles and the teaser that introduced Starcourt Mall is that the new Starcourt Mall is going to be a central location this season, and based on the latest teaser that may also mean Stranger Things Season 3 will end with an homage to the zombie classic Dawn of the Dead.

This theory actually has its roots in the official Stranger Things companion book, Worlds Turned Upside Down, which reveals that Season 3 will take some influence from three iconic horror movie directors John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing), David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome), and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead).

“There are horror movies and horror masters that we haven’t really paid tribute to as much in previous seasons that we are definitely going to get into this season,” series co-creator Ross Duffer says in the book.

Fans have taken that information and combined it with the titles for the last two episodes to argue that Stranger Things Season 3 will feature an homage to Romero’s horror sequel, Dawn of the Dead Homage, which takes place in a zombie-infested shopping mall.

“With a title like that, it’s pretty much assured that mall will be a complete fucking war zone for the finale,” redditor u/gf120581 writes.

Redditor u/Charlie780561 adds that the penultimate episode will set up that battle.

“The Bite might be … like in fishing,” they write. “If our characters are trying to lure something out into the Mall.”

Meanwhile, other fans wondered if another new episode, “The Sauna Test” might actually be a reference to John Carpenter’s The Thing, specifically pointing to the film’s blood tests used to tell if the monster is imitating a human.

“I am hoping to see correlation with Carpenter’s The Thing blood test scene,” writes redditor u/Meph616. “A blood test was used to see if the Thing was imitating someone.”

Another fan expanded on this idea to suggest that the Mind Flayer, or some other monster, could be imitating the human characters in Stranger Things Season 3.

“I think The Sauna Test is going to be testing Will to see if the Mind Flayer is still attached to him somehow, because it hates the heat,” writes redditor u/olejarvis.

Either way, it seems clear that Stranger Things is only getting darker in Season 3, and these episode titles seem to confirm that. Now if we could just get a trailer with some actual new footage and an official release date we’d be all set.

Stranger Things Season 3 will be available on Netflix in 2019.

Related video: 3 Reasons ‘Stranger Things’ Season 3 Will Be the Scariest Season Yet