Slowly but surely, more and more details about Stranger Things' third season [1] have begun to trickle in. This week, an exclusive new report from TVLine confirmed the exact episode count [2]. Despite the fact that the show's tense second season [3] clocked in at nine episodes, the third season will only be eight. What's more, production is set to begin in April!

Previously, executive producer Shawn Levy revealed that the powers that be were fleshing out a new season that could be eight or nine episodes. Given the fact that everyone pretty unanimously hated the standalone seventh episode, "The Lost Sister" — the backlash was so severe that the creators had to defend it [4] — maybe this is a sign we won't get a random extra garbage episode for round three. Since season three's episode count matches the count of season one, we're hoping the show returns to one singular, consistent, tightly-wound, expertly told story.

Stranger Things [5] season three is set for a 2019 launch.