Fans are still waiting patiently to learn when the third season of Stranger Things will land on Netflix, but, unfortunately, that new season will be slightly shorter than Season 2. TVLine has learned that the upcoming season will consist of eight episodes, while last season featured nine.

Netflix series often consist of 10 to 13-episode seasons, which made Stranger Things much more brief from the get-go. The first season was only eight episodes, with this shorter episode count allowing the narrative to move much more quickly, with episodes never growing stagnant or giving audiences the sense of "filler" episodes to merely reach the necessary count. It's unclear whether the decision will be narratively based or if last year's extended season caused the Duffer Brothers, who created the series, to change their approach.

Interestingly, one of last season's most talked-about episodes focused solely on Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) and her activities outside the town of Hawkins, Indiana. Some audiences commended the bold direction of the series while others thought the episode slowed down the pacing of the overall narrative.

Last fall, the Duffer Brothers likened that journey to Star Wars.

“We talked a lot about Empire Strikes Back,” series co-creator Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly. “We talked about Luke going to Dagobah and meeting Yoda. Also, the idea of a dark Eleven, of Eleven being pulled to the dark side was an interesting idea. So a lot of that episode was what happens if Eleven is drawn towards this darkness and what can she learn about herself if that’s the case.”

Many of the series' main cast members are returning, yet the show's creators promised they weren't going to terrorize the character of Will Byers quite as much.

"We're going to give Will a break," director Shawn Levy shared with Glamour. "We're not going to put Will through hell for a third season in a row. He'll be dealing with stuff, but he won't be at rock bottom the way we forced the amazing Noah Schnapp to play."

This would lead some to assume another one of the young characters would become the target of evil entities, with Levy promising that wasn't the case.

"You might assume that," he admitted. "But you would probably end up being wrong. We're [going to be] dealing with forces of evil that are new."

Stay tuned for more details about Stranger Things Season 3.

[H/T TVLine]