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Stranger Things Season 3: The Secret, Dark, Real Life History Of Starcourt Mall
17 July 2018, 13:05 | Updated: 17 July 2018, 13:09
After Starcourt Mall appeared in the Stranger Things Season 3 teaser, we discovered its dark history in real life as Gwinnett Place Mall.
In the first glimpse of Stranger Things Season 3, fans were given a look at a brand new location coming to Hawkins - Starcourt Mall. The eighties-soaked teaser video above shows fan favourite character Steve harrington working in the mall, which has a dark past in real life.
Whilst Steve's place of employment, ice cream shop 'Scoops Ahoy' is only a fictional store, Starcourt Mall is actually known as Gwinnett Place Mall and was once a thriving hub of shoppers eager to buy up the latest bargains.
> Stranger Things Season 3: What We Know So Far Incl. Release Date, Cast & Spoilers
In recent years though, the mall has fallen on harder times with various parts being closed off and the discovery of a dead body which had been in the mall for two weeks before it was noticed.
Back in January 2018, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that a mall maintenance worker had found the body of a 19 year old student in the back room of a vacant Subway shop which had been there for two weeks, with her boyfriend later charged with murder.
Other mall issues saw staff who worked there complain that parts of the mall had become so cold due to heating being turned off to save money, that they'd had to close security shutters just to stay warm.
Hot water taps in toilets and escalators were switched off earlier this year and there were only a handful of stores that actually remained open, whilst no businesses were in operation in the food court and an entire wing of the mall eventually got blocked off.
Since the Stranger Things team moved in, they've rebranded Gwinnett Place Mall into Starcourt Mall and have restored it to its former glory, even if it is only a temporary fix whilst scenes are filmed there.
Stranger Things is also not the first film crew to pass through the doors of Gwinnett Place Mall, with scenes for Margot Robbie film 'I, Tonya' being filmed there back in 2017.
So can the Stranger Things like help return this mall to its historically glorious heights as depicted in the teaser trailer or will its dark past continue to haunt it?
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