Here's What We Know About The Scary Creature In The New 'Stranger Things' Season 3 Trailer

The first real look at footage from the new season of Stranger Things is finally here. It's the summer of 1985; there are pools, malls, aerobics, mullets, swimsuits and short shorts everywhere, all set to a soundtrack of the era.However, while the horror for some will be a reminder of the styles of the time, this is the world that includes the Upside Down, which means there are monsters around every corner. (Coming armed with hairspray is advisable.) This season, the beasts have had another upgrade. What's the creature in the Stranger Things Season 3 trailer?

The trailer doesn't show the creature until nearly the end. There's the long set up where Eleven and friends try and pull a fast one on Dustin to welcome him home and it backfiring. There's a lot of footage of 1980s era summer living, including the fly-by-night Fun Fair, set up for everyone's July 4th enjoyment. But this is Hawkins, and the creatures don't sleep for long, especially when a mall has been built on top of the access point to this world from theirs.

The good look at the new terror doesn't come until nearly the very end. Skip to 2:22 to see it:

That's not the only clip of the thing, for the record, but it's the best shot of it. The buildup starts around the 1:50 mark, with Eleven clearly in the Upside Down by the seaside. Something goes down in the new Starcourt Mall after dark, from the shot of Eleven's bloody nose and her friends surrounding her in a darkened food court.

However, it may be that the gang isn't done with Hawkins Labs or Hawkins Middle School either. It's not entirely clear which institutional hallway the creature makes its debut in, but wherever it is, it's a place where no one was watching other than Jonathan and maybe Nancy too.

(By the way, Nancy, Jennifer Grey called, and wants her hair back.)

So what kind of Demogorgon is this anyway? Each season, the creature from the Upside Down morphs and breeds into a new sort of animal. It was notable in Season 2 the Demogorgon became less of an intelligent, malevolent force, as the Mind Flayer took center stage, leaving the vicious Season 1 monster to become part of a pack of "demo-dogs" instead. This one had maintained the four-legged stance of the demo-dog, but also seems to have multiple heads, which will most likely make things more difficult.

Also, fans should remember so far, Stranger Things 3 has mostly teased the Mind Flayer as the season's main antagonist. So even though this creature from out of some 80s era nightmare may look scary, chances are, he's just a (multiheaded) red (and bloody) herring.

Even so, as Steve Harrington will attest, the demo-dogs might not have been the driving force behind last season's adventure, they were still terrifying and would have killed everyone in a heartbeat for lunch. So even though the monster at the end of this trailer may not be the main villain, the Hawkins kids are still going to have their hands full taking it down.

Stranger Things 3 arrives on Netflix on July 4, 2019.