This is a Code Red.

There are spoilers ahead, so make sure to watch all of Stranger Things 3 on Netflix

before going any further. 11 first opened the gate to the

the gate to the upside down way back in stranger things one

when she made contact with a

flower face full of teeth that you know still haunts you in your dreams.

But Ross Duffer and his brother Matt, the creators of the series, they knew that the

Demogorgon would be the least of 11's upside-down problems.

We always saw the Demogorgons as sharks, like the Shark and jaws in season one.

But ultimately was a creature.

It was following blood.

And so what we really wanted to do

in turn to up the stakes moving forward

is to create something sentient,

because that's always even scarier to us than just a creature or a monster.

So going into stranger things too, they wanted an antagonist who would be more powerful than a demagorgon. They wanted something that they could build as a recurring villain.

And when the writers were brainstorming what this new enemy could be,

Paul Dichter, one of the writers on the show, he says they referred

back to Mike, Lucas, Will, and Dustin's all-time favorite book, The Dungeons and Dragons Manual.

The Mind Flayer.

What the hell is that?

It's a monster from an unknown dimension.

...