@Dali Parton said:

IIRC season 3 is the end - I think I read that somewhere a few months ago. I just finished bingeing it and they left it open in a totally predictable and really generic after-credits scene.

But it got me thinking. This show is all about GenX nostalgia. I'd like to see a season 4 where everybody is grown up, got kids, maybe even a couple newborn grandkids. They could bring it into the present and get the old gang together to save the world one last time.

Season 3 is the last season????

Unless Netflix decides to kill it for some reason this is not the end - and the Duffers would be free to shop the franchise around if they did that, since they're the ones who actually own the rights. Shortly after they got a green light for season 2 they said they were planning no fewer than 4 but no more than 5 seasons, with the fourth season moving the action out of Hawkins ... which seems to be exactly what they're doing.

Stephen King's stories have been a major source of inspiration for the show. He's a master of writing fiction, like IT, that features child characters but isn't exactly children's fare. If they do a King inspired ending I'd expect to see the surviving "kids" twenty or thirty years later gathering for some occasion. We'll get to catch up and find out what they've been doing all this time. How much you want to bet Dustin is a silicon valley billionaire and lands in a helicopter? If I was writing it, the last scene would involve Mike and El's young daughter (who they previously said was showing no signs of taking after her mom). She goes off by herself, walks some distance into the woods then sits down and starts moving things around, a whole bunch at once, her abilities already more powerful and focused than her mother's. Just stretching exercises. Then she closes her eyes, concentrates hard, opens a mini-gate in the air and says "It's okay, we're alone." Roll credits. The Mind Flayer may be gone but who knows what else is out there ...