Stranger Things 3 may have given its best hint so far for its release date

Steve Harrington has a new job, it seems, in Stranger Things 3. But more importantly, we have our best indication yet as to when we’ll see him again.

We fully expect that Steve Harrington dressed in a sailor’s outfit and saying “ahoy!” will become a meme by the time this clip circulates more fully throughout the internet. After all, Stranger Things fans took to him quite strongly during his season 2 outing. But, aside from the commitment to making sure fanservice continues — and retaining the ’80s aesthetic — the clip that the show’s official Twitter account released earlier today might just contain a release window for the entire third season.

You’ll have to sit through about a minute and a half of an ad for the Starcourt Mall (and almost the same amount of time for Steve himself), but at the very end, it says that the mall is “coming next summer.”

Check the clip out below:

Now, that works on a couple of levels. One, this is meant to be an in-universe ad, and we know that Stranger Things 3 will actually take place in the summer of 1985. Two, it also works as a teaser for when the show will actually return in the real world. While Stranger Things 2 waited until October to debut, the very first season dropped in July of 2016. A summer 2019 release would mean there’s less for the show to compete with in terms of traditional television, and it could represent a return to booming form for the show.

Additionally, as Deadline notes, this is also the first time we’ve seen Robin, one of the new characters on the show. She’s the girl who says “Ahoy!” right after Steve, so we can expect to see her based primarily in the mall, at least for the first few episodes.

Of course, the Stranger Things Twitter account is also very aware of the Steve memes:

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Can you make it to summer 2019 for Stranger Things 3?