October, and thus the mass-drop of the second series of Stranger Things, feels so far away – especially since we last got a tantalising glimpse all the way back in February.

Thankfully for those of us counting down the days, a new trailer for the Netflix show has just been unveiled and it confirms that all our favourite elements are still in place (that’d be complete terror combined with Eighties nostalgia), but a bigger, more sinister monster than the Demogorgon is at hand.

The majority of the cast return, including Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), Will’s mum Joyce (Winona Ryder) and the all-powerful Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) – though Barb fans will have to be content with the creators’ assertion that the popular character will see justice after apparently nobody gave much of a toss she’d been dragged off to meet her fate in a nightmarish underworld.

So here’s what we’ve learnt about the upcoming series from the hefty three-minute trailer.

1. Will is definitely not OK

We suspected it when following his dramatic rescue he was having terrible flashbacks (to be expected) and left the dinner table to throw up some kind of slug creature (not so expected), now the new trailer reveals just how connected Will still is to the Upside Down. He’s being seen by doctors, having extensive reality switches and seems to know what the terrible presence in the parallel world is after (“Not me. Everyone else.”). Creepy.

2. The decade is still a significant lead character

It’s taking its 1984 setting seriously. We see the boys excitedly tackle a game of Dragon's Lair at their local arcade (before Will goes all weird on them again), they dress up as Ghostbusters for Halloween, the soundtrack is Thriller... Perfect, really.

3. Eleven is in the Upside Down

Or a version of it, at least. Having given her all in the final battle against the Demogorgon and being dragged into the Upside Down (or yet another dimension) as it appeared to die, it would have been safe to assume she had sacrificed herself, via either death or a lifetime in whatever alternate reality she landed in – and that is partly true, as despite seeing Hopper leave her favourite waffles in a hiding place at the end of the first season, the last moments of the trailer reveal Eleven trying to escape the Upside Down.

The story most likely does not end there though, as FYI, one of the later episodes is called The Secret Cabin, leading some to believe that she escapes and is ensconced safely somewhere, given that scary government sorts are probably still really interested in her and her brain-exploding ways.

Read more: The Westworld series two trailer is here – and Dolores is taking no prisoners

4. Will’s mum is still on his side

Joyce knew he hadn’t just run off and somehow drowned, and her dogged belief in her son instead being trapped in some kind of supernatural world turned out to be 100% true. Now, despite the obvious temptation to pack him off to an asylum and get on with her life pretending she never had to drag her second-born out of a hellish underworld, she’s having conversations with Will about what he’s going through and taking what he says seriously. He tells her, horrified, “I felt it, everywhere” and she’s the one asking him what he thinks “it” wants. Never covered this in Parenting 101, she’s probably thinking.

5. The Upside Down continues to impact on the real world

“Nothing’s going to go back to the way that it was. Not really.” That’s what the voiceover says, and the trailer’s official caption from Netflix reveals that the town of Hawkins is still reeling – and despite Will’s rescue and the Demogorgon’s apparent defeat at the hands (brain) of Eleven, “a bigger, sinister entity still threatens those who survived.” Additionally, we see the boys seem to catch something in a trap and a surgeon running for his life down a hospital corridor, while snatches of conversation reveal an ongoing investigation, saying: “Whatever’s happening is spreading from this place”. Shiver.

The second series of Stranger Things drops in its entirety 27 October.

Main image: Netflix