Stranger Things franchise is getting spin-off prequel novel about Jim Hopper

We’ve still got several months of waiting for the debut of season 3 ofStranger Things. Fans hungry for the backstory to the various residents of Hawkins, Indiana, can play themobile game. Or they might try one of the prequel novels published by Del Rey Books that delves into the pasts of some of the peripheral characters.

Suspicious Minds, publishedearlier this month, tells the story of Eleven’s mother Terry Ives and how she got involved with MKUltra. A second prequel novel,Darkness on the Edge of Town, will arrive June 4 and focus on police Chief Jim Hopper’s early years in New York City as a homicide detective. And yes, both are considered “canon,” for fans who are purists.

(Minor spoilers for the first two seasonsStranger Thingsbelow.)

Yes, that second title is a Bruce Springsteen reference. We know Hopper, played by David Harbour in the series, is a fan of Jim Croce—who could forget his “Dad dancing” to “Don’t Mess Around with Jim” in season 2?—so why not The Boss, too? We’ve seen hints of Hopper’s tragic past in the show’s first two seasons: namely, the death of his young daughter by an unspecified illness and how the grief destroyed his marriage. His wife moved away, remarried, and had a new baby while Hopper stayed in Hawkins wallowing in depression with his memories. Naturally, he bonded with Eleven, and at the end of season 2, he had successfully adopted her.

The second novel will be set in 1977, six years before the demogorgon first terrorized Hawkins. Details are scarce, butNetflix tweetedthat Eleven’s many unanswered questions prompt the sheriff to confront past secrets. It sounds like Hawkins wasn’t the first time Hopper encountered strange phenomena. The novel’s author,Adam Christoper, called the novel a “dream project”on his blog, adding, “I’m a huge fan of the show, and [Hopper] is my favorite character. Digging into his past in NYC was a real blast, and I hope readers have as much fun reading about his bizarre 1977 adventure as I did writing it.”

As for the forthcoming season 3, ateaser on New Year’s Eveshowed viewers Dick Clark’sRockin’ Evebroadcast of 1985, meaning the season’s events will likely take place around the same time period. But it probably won’t be around the New Year, since the official tagline is “one summer can change everything”—and that probablydoesn’t refer tothe arrival of the Starcourt Megamall in Hawkins.