For those who binged their way through the first season, one of the biggest remaining mysteries was whether the acclaimed show created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer would indeed get a second season. Much to the delight of sci-fi fans of all kinds, the Stranger Things season 2 premiered October 27 — right in time for Halloween, of course.
So what do we know about the show’s return? Here are all the details so far.
The buzz around Eleven’s hair
Telekinetic mystery girl Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) has grown her hair out since escaping from the lab, but the Duffer brothers needed her season-one ‘do for a brief scene in season two. In an interview with Vulture, Matt Duffer said it would have been “cruel” to make the actress shave her head again. And even if the producers tried, Brown would have had none of it. They discovered this the hard way when bringing up the touchy subject, only to fall victim to the young actress’s “foul mouth.”
A cap and wig were trotted out, but neither worked very well. So the show turned to CG, normally an especially difficult process when it comes to hair. It wasn’t so bad in this case, however, as the Stranger Things co-creator explained.
“It’s not like it wasn’t a challenge, but it was dark, and because it was a buzz cut, it turned out much better than I thought it was going to be,” Duffer said. “It’s kind of expensive, so thank God it was only for that one short sequence. We wouldn’t have been able to do that the whole season.”
Feeling the pressure
The creators of the series are well aware of the high expectations fans have for the second season of the show, and according to Ross Duffer, the scares this time around are different for them, too.
“I always say that it evens out in terms of just how scared I am about the whole thing,” explained Duffer in an interview with NPR released the day of the season’s Netflix premiere. “Because season one, you’re just scared that people might not like it, and even worse, that no one’s gonna watch it. So season one was really scary in a lot of ways.”
“And then this season’s a very different feeling, which is: ‘We know we’re gonna have these people watching it, but yeah, they have expectations now.'” And that’s always the balancing act, ’cause you don’t want to just give people exactly what is expected. You want to surprise them a little bit.”
Stranger Things will get an aftershow talk show
Joining the ranks of series like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Orphan Black, Mr. Robot, and others, Stranger Things will also be getting its own aftershow talk show for its second season, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Streaming on Netflix, the aftershow, called Beyond Stranger Things, will be hosted by comedian and filmmaker Jim Rash, and will look at the inspiration for the series and behind-the-scene stories, as well as analyze each episode to answer viewers’ “burning questions.”
As with other series aftershows, guests will include the show’s creators, Ross and Matt Duffer, along with producers and cast members. Already among the list of cast members who have been confirmed to appear are Sean Astin, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Gaten Matarazzo, Paul Reiser, and Finn Wolfhard. Unlike other network television aftershows that air weekly after each episode in a season airs, Beyond Stranger Things will be a single episode tacked onto the end of the series. So viewers shouldn’t watch it until after they’ve binged all nine episodes, in order to avoid spoilers.
This marks the first attempt at an aftershow series by Netflix.
Season 2 hype is everywhere
Excitement about Stranger Things season 2 has reached an all-time high, and even Lyft is getting caught up in it. The ridesharing service teamed up with Netflix to create “Strange Mode” for its app, Deadline reports. Available across the U.S. on Thursday, October 26 and 27 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, the special mode will revamp the car icons giving them patterns that incorporate items seen on the show, including Christmas lights, waffles, Dustin’s trucker hat, and the show’s logo.
If a “stranger” Lyft experience is what was missing from your life, you will have fun with the new mode, but there is one thing you should know if you live in Los Angeles or Philadelphia: On October 27 and 28, riders who use “Strange Mode” from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. might end up having a special paranormal ride. Lyft released a video showing some passengers having their ride turned into the Upside Down realm.
If that looks like more than you want out of your Lyft ride, you can celebrate your love for Stranger Things with show-themed Reeboks instead … or just binge-watch season 2.
The search for Eleven
The whereabouts of Eleven are expected to play a big part in the new season’s story arc, and a clip released by Netflix ahead of the premiere confirms that the search is on in the second season.
Sounds and sights
With the premiere of the second season mere days away, Netflix released more material in late October to keep excitement high for the return of Stranger Things.
The soundtrack for season 2 of Stranger Things is now available on Spotify, and like the first season, it features the work of composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. The duo make ample use of moody synth elements in the season’s score, and the soundtrack includes some tracks with intriguing — and funny — titles, such as “We go out at night,” “Eggo in the snow,” and “Walkin’ in Hawkins.”
Along with the season’s soundtrack, Netflix also released a new poster for season 2 featuring the cast and at least one terrifying creature from the gang’s latest adventure.
October 27 can’t come soon enough!
Eleven’s escape
The first clip from the second season of Stranger Things debuted during London’s MCM Comic Con in October 2017 and soon found its way online. Introduced by Eleven herself, the clip reveals how her character escapes from the terrifying alternate dimension known as the Upside Down.
For anyone looking to avoid spoilers, you might want to skip the clip — but for everyone else, go ahead and press “play.”
The final trailer
The marketing campaign for season 2 of Stranger Things capped off its trailer debuts on October 13 — Friday the 13th, to be exact — with one final preview of what’s in store for the residents of Hawkins.
The last full-length trailer for the season just might be the most epic, thrilling peek we’ve had so far at season 2, and offers up just the right amount of fresh footage, scares, and moments that are likely to prompt some cheering from Stranger Things fans. Well played, Netflix.
The teaser before the trailer
Almost too perfectly, Friday the 13th falls two weeks before the Stranger Things season 2 premiere, making it the perfect day to release a new trailer. Netflix announced in a teaser video on Thursday, October 12, that it planned to do just that. The teaser offers a taste of what the trailer reveals as it shows new glimpses at the upcoming season — 13 of them, to be exact.
Among the scenes are glimpses of Will (Noah Schnapp) at a doctor’s office, a masked group of teens, creepy corridors, a dark tunnel, and a door chain being moved by an unseen force. The puzzle pieces are all eerie interesting, but, of course, they don’t give us a full picture.
Episode titles, reprise
In August 2017, Netflix released a video which revealed episode titles for the nine-episode second season of Stranger Things. Even then, though, the Duffers warned that the titles were subject to change. As it happens, those titles were indeed subjected to wholesale change, with none of the original titles remaining the same (though one did get moved up). On October 9, the official Stranger Things Twitter account shared a video with the updated episode titles (viewable below).
The story continues. New chapters on October 27. #StrangerThings pic.twitter.com/NPF1NPNQSt
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) October 9, 2017
According to Consequence of Sound, the episodes are called (in order):
- Dragon’s Lair
- Trick or Treat Freak
- The Pollywog
- Will the Wise
- Dig Dug
- The Spy
Episodes seven, eight, and nine are not titled — they’re listed together in the video, along with a creepy monster hand slicing its way through the page. The titles themselves don’t reveal too much, though both Dragon’s Lair and Dig Dug are famous ’80s arcade games (which the boys will likely play at the Palace arcade), and ‘Will the Wise’ is the name of Will Byers’ Dungeons & Dragons character from season 1. It seems the second season will feature a renewed focus on gaming, which suits us just fine.
1984 was a weird year
A new teaser trailer for season 2 helps to ground the events of Stranger Things in reality … sort of, anyway. The trailer (viewable below) opens with a grainy news report on Will Byers’ (Noah Schnapp) season 1 disappearance (set in 1983), followed by the narrator listing off notable events that took place during 1984 (when season 2 takes place).
The teaser (aptly titled 1984) seems to imply that the rift to the “upside down” — opened by Eleven in season 1 — is also responsible for the USSR’s boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the introduction of “New Coke,” and a few other major happenings. We don’t get any new information about season 2, but it’s a fun play on the nostalgia that helps power Stranger Things.
Stranger Things: The Game
In early October 2017, Netflix launched a free-to-play Stranger Things mobile game (aptly titled Stranger Things: The Game), a top-down action RPG in the vein of the old Legend of Zelda games.
Players take control of the show’s main characters — this includes Chief Hopper, Nancy Byers, and the group of kids that so enchanted audiences during season 1 — and explore many iconic Hawkins locales, including the forest and the government laboratory, solving puzzles and collecting waffles (yep) along the way. Reviews thus far have been overwhelmingly positive, and developer BonusXP promises there are some surprises and new areas in store for fans of the series. For more information, check out our coverage.
Download it now for:
Pursuit of #JusticeForBarb
The first-season death of actress Shannon Purser’s fan-favorite character, Barbara (aka Barb), won’t be swept under the rug in the second season of Stranger Things, according to the show’s cast and creative team.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Natalia Dyer — who plays Barb’s friend Nancy Wheeler on the series — explained that the death of Purser’s character will resonate throughout the events of the second season.
“Especially this season, Barb’s a big part of Nancy’s storyline and that drive to — I don’t know how to say it otherwise — to find justice,” said Dyer. “There are a lot of loose ends there that Nancy feels need to be addressed.”
“We wanted to show that’s something that Nancy didn’t really deal with last year,” series co-creator Ross Duffer added.
And it won’t be just the main characters dealing with her death, according to the series’ other co-creator, Matt Duffer. Barb’s father will be introduced in the second season and his pursuit of answers will factor prominently into the story arc.
“You met [Barb’s] mom briefly last year but we introduce her dad,” Matt Duffer said. “The only thing that bothered me about the Barb criticism was people saying her parents didn’t care about her — of course they care. In their mind, Hopper has been slacking off and he’s a joke of a chief.”
More photos, more mystery
Just a month before the second season of Stranger Things was scheduled to premiere, Netflix released a series of photos from the season that offered a preview of what to expect, as well as some elements for fans to puzzle over.
Posted by Entertainment Weekly, the photos reveal Eleven’s new look (now with a full head of hair) and Sean Astin’s nerdy new character, Bob Newby.
The photos also include a shot of the new, Camaro-driving bad boy played by Dacre Montgomery, who is expected to play a not-so-nice role in the show’s second season.
You can view the rest of the photos at EW.
Script pages reveal details
Entertainment Weekly is in the midst of a 50-day series filled with exclusive scoops and news about popular TV shows. Today, it gave us a sneak peek at the script for season two, courtesy of the Duffer brothers. Viewable below, the script reveals a new location, one that fits the show’s 1980s theme perfectly — the arcade (fittingly named The Palace), where the boys are frustrated at a mysterious stranger beating Dustin’s (Gaten Matarazzo) high score on the Dig Dug machine.
After a short exchange with Keith (a new character, played by Matty Cardarople), the scene shifts dramatically, with Will experiencing some creepy visions, wherein snow begins to fall and everyone disappears from the arcade. Given Will’s narrow escape from the Demogorgon in season one and his extended stay in the “upside down” mirror world, it could be a flashback… or something more nefarious.
The Duffers also offered a few tasty tidbits in an interview with EW, talking about how Keith has valuable information for the boys that he’ll only relinquish in exchange for being hooked up with Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Mike’s sister. They also hint that we should be expecting a greater focus on Will in season two.
A real thriller at Comic-Con
During the show’s panel at 2017’s San Diego Comic-Con, Netflix released a brand new trailer for the second of Stranger Things, and the preview just might be the hit of the show.
Set to the tune of Michael Jackson’s iconic song Thriller, the trailer indicated that the worst might still be coming for the show’s young characters — particularly Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), whose time in the terrifying dimension known as the Upside Down appears to have forever changed him.
Monstrous upgrades
After months of anticipation, Netflix has finally put our minds at ease by announcing the October 27 release date for the second season of Stranger Things. Netflix announced the news on Twitter with an accompanying photo that shows the boys are far from past the creatures from The Upside Down:
Some doors can’t be closed. @Stranger_Things season 2. October 27. pic.twitter.com/8Ewfyy4lcA
— Netflix US (@netflix) July 11, 2017
In a May 2017 interview, series co-producer Shawn Levy teased that the show will raise the bar significantly in its second season as far as nightmarish creatures go.
“I’m so forbidden to say so very much,” he told Gold Derby. “Will Byers is very much at the center of several intersecting challenges and threats in season 2. And I think overall, the kind of forces of evil that are inherent in season 2 make that demogorgon [the first season’s monster] look quaint in retrospect.”
Of course, that certainly seems to be the case in the small amount of footage fans have seen from the second season so far. In one particularly memorable scene from last year’s Halloween preview, a massive creature can be seen looming over a forest in the distance.
According to actor Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike in the series, that monstrous creature looming over the town has an ominous name — one that might not be its official title in the show, but still conjures up some cryptic possibilities.
“The Shadow monster, the new one, the big one in the sky, that was crazy for us,” Wolfhard told TV Guide.
It’s not unheard of for movies and television projects to use in-house names for elements or characters that they don’t want to reveal to the public before they’re ready, so the massive beast that appears in the trailer might end up with another name in the series. No matter what it’s called, though, it’s a terrifying hint at what’s to come for the Stranger Things characters.
The Demogorgon doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?
A cast member steps up
Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is back from the Upside Down, and we’re going to be seeing a lot of him this season. Shawn Levy, one of the series’ executive producers and directors, told Mashable that the character is “very much at the center” of season 2. Although we didn’t get to see much of him in the first season, we can rest assured that Byers holds his own alongside his talented co-stars.
“We cast him because we knew that kid was special,” Levy said. “Even if we weren’t going to call on his full reservoir of abilities in season 1.”
When it came time to shoot season 2 with Byers, Levy and Stranger Things‘ co-creators, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, saw their decision pay off. Yet they were apparently still blown away and couldn’t stop talking about it.
“Noah steps up in the most staggering way,” Levy said. “The Duffers and I, depending on who’s directing when, we keep sending texts to each other going, ‘Holy shit, Noah is crushing it.'”
With Will being just one of the many interesting characters on the show, the Duffers easily had more material than they needed for the show’s second season. Levy shared that they realized there was “too much story” and are hoping to have the chance to revisit some of their ideas in future seasons. Given how popular the show is, we’d be shocked if Netflix didn’t renew the series for season 3.
Dark and getting darker
In a May 2017 interview with People, series actor Finn Wolfhard indicated that the second season of the series will be “a lot more dark.”
“[It will be] a lot more horror-oriented,” he added. “I think people are going to like it more than the first season. … There are going to be some challenges that the characters face that are real. That are disturbing.”
All of that darkness won’t come from external elements, either. According to actor Gaten Matarazzo, some of the danger facing the friends and their families could come from within their close-knit group.
“The great thing about this season is you get to see insights into each character on their own,” he teased. “You’re going to see a lot more into the lives of how the characters are coping with what’s been going on. … I think they’re all very emotionally scarred. They feel alone, because their best friend [Will] is back and he’s not acting like their best friend anymore. He’s changed.”
Where is it all going?
In a February interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Duffer brothers confirmed that they have more stories to tell beyond the second season of Stranger Things — at least two or three seasons more. If it runs that long, it will join the ranks of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black as one of the best TV shows on Netflix.
The series’ creators envision a four- or five-season run for the hit show, but are mindful of the tendency for long-running series to lose steam after a few seasons.
“I want it to have a really finite ending,” said Matt Duffer. “I don’t want it to be one of those shows that runs out of gas, and they lose it because they’re losing interest. You wanna end when you’re on top.”
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be a sense of conclusion at the end of the second season, though.
“Hopefully. you’ll come to the end of Season 2 and feel fully satisfied and want more, but you’ll feel like it has come to a conclusion,” said Ross Duffer. “But also we’ve laid the ground work for further seasons.”
New plot details emerge
On February 9, 2017, Entertainment Weekly published an article revealing new details about the plot of season 2. The season takes place a year after the events of the first season, opening on Halloween (hence the Ghostbusters costumes in the trailer). The characters are trying to recover from the nightmare of the previous year, particularly Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), who, after spending a lot of time in the hellish dimension known as the Upside Down, is having terrifying visions. Given that, and the fact that he coughed up an alien slug in the season one finale, Will’s health may be an issue in season 2.
Other characters are dealing with their own problems. Nancy and Mike are suffering from the apparent deaths of their friends, Barb and Eleven, respectively.
“She and Mike are both the most screwed-up because they’re the ones who both lost someone. They’re both grappling with that, and we see the effects,” co-creator Matt Duffer said to EW.
Films from the ’80s often featured cute magical creatures, and Stranger Things season 2 will be no exception, as Dustin (Matarazzo) will find an otherworldly pet at some point. “It’s a little creature I get to bond with. It’s obviously not from this planet or this dimension,” Matarazzo told EW.
A super trailer and a scary release date
Fans of Stranger Things were the big winners during this year’s Super Bowl, as Netflix revealed the first footage from the second season of the series and its release date during the NFL’s championship game.
Kicking off with an excerpt from a classic ’80s television commercial, the television spot for Stranger Things featured a fast-paced montage of scenes teasing what’s to come for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and the rest of the gang from Hawkins, Indiana.
The ad concluded with official confirmation of the season’s (fitting) premiere date: Halloween.
It looks like October 31 will be scarier than usual this year.
Seeing is believing
Production on the second season of Stranger Things officially kicked off in November and the occasion was marked by the release of an official photo of some of the young cast members engaged in a script reading.
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ɹɐǝʎ ʇxǝu noʎ ǝǝs
uoıʇɔnpoɹd uı ʞɔɐq pic.twitter.com/jYd1tDsPRi— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) November 4, 2016
The photo featured 10 familiar faces from the series reading their script at a long table, and was flipped 180 degrees in reference to “The Upside Down” — the name given to the dark, dangerous dimension that played a role in the first season’s events.
“Back in production … see you next year … ” read the caption for the photo.
A little Goonies, a little Aliens…
There will be some familiar faces and some newcomers among the second season’s cast of school-age characters, but Stranger Things is also getting some high-profile additions to its cast of adult characters.
According to Entertainment Weekly, The Goonies and Lord of the Rings franchise actor Sean Astin will join the series in the second season as a character named Bob Newby, described as “a kind-hearted former nerd who went to high school with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour) and now manages the local Hawkins RadioShack.”
Joining Astin will be Aliens and Mad About You (and more recently, Whiplash) actor Paul Reiser, who is reportedly been cast as Dr. Owens, “a high-ranking member within the Department of Energy on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the events of last year.”
Given his character’s connection to the laboratory that first brought the small town in contact with the terrifying creature from the Upside Down dimension, there is reason to believe Reiser’s role could be one of the second season’s villains.
Introducing the new kids
Most of the first season’s young cast is expected to return for the second story arc, but they will be joined by a few newcomers, too.
Among those new characters will be actress Sadie Sink (American Odyssey, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as a girl named “Max.” TV Line first reported the casting call for the show’s second season, describing Sink’s character as a “tough and confident” girl between the ages of 12-14 years old, whose “appearance, behavior, and pursuits seem more typical of boys than of girls in this era.”
Max is described as riding a skateboard instead of a bicycle — the preferred mode of transportation for the show’s young characters — and will likely feature prominently in the premiere episode, expected to have the title “Madmax.”
Also joining the show in the second season is Power Rangers actor Dacre Montgomery as the “very muscular and hyper-confident” older brother of Max, who drives a Camaro (because it’s the ’80s, of course) and is named “Billy.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Billy “steals girlfriends away from their boyfriends, is great at drinking games, and drives a black Camaro. But lurking under his apparent charisma is a violent and unpredictable nature.” Further adding to Billy’s bad reputation is Matt Duffer, who told EW, “Stephen King always has really great human villains. The evil in the real world is often as bad or worse than the supernatural evil, so we wanted to introduce a character like that.”
The two aforementioned characters will be joined by a third newcomer played by Danish actress Linnea Berthelsen. The character, whose name is “Roman,” is described as”an emotionally damaged, magnetic young woman who suffered a great loss as a child. Although she does not live in Hawkins, she is mysteriously connected to the supernatural events at the lab.”
Welcome back, familiar faces
It had long been assumed that young actress Millie Bobby Brown would return as the telepathic, telekinetic mystery girl, Eleven, but nothing was confirmed until early November when TV Line reported that Brown would indeed reprise her role from the first season. The report indicates Brown will appear in an unknown number of episodes in the second season, but will likely be a series regular for the show’s second major story arc.
Although there is some speculation about who else will be returning for the second season, fans of the Steve Harrington character can rest easy knowing that actor Joe Keery has been promoted from a recurring role in the first season to a series regular in the upcoming season. Noah Schnapp, who played the missing boy Will Byers, was also elevated to regular status for the second season.
On the flip side, another thing seems certain that fans won’t be as thrilled about: Barbara (Purser) won’t be among the characters returning for the second season.
“I can’t see it happening,” Matt Duffer told IGN when asked whether Purser’s character — last seen in the nightmarish “Upside Down” dimension — will be back. “But Barb will not be forgotten. We’ll make sure there’s some justice for Barb. People get very frustrated, understandably, that the town doesn’t seem to be really dealing with Barb. That stuff is all happening. We’re just not spending any screen time on it.”
“These characters have changed and the audience has to sort of fill in those gaps of what went on in that year.”
“Season One actually takes place over the course of six or seven days – it’s a really short period of time,” he explained. “So part of what we want to do with hypothetical Season 2 is to explore the repercussions of everything that happened.”
Now that the show has received the green light for a second season, the creative team will likely have to move fast, as the series’ young cast members could look quite a bit different in the near future. Speaking with IGN after a press event during the Television Critics Association in July, Matt Duffer acknowledged that the cast’s young age can pose a problem for continuity on a project like Stranger Things.
“Yeah, you have to do the Harry Potter thing,” he explained. “You have to jump a year. Because, like, Gaten [Matarazzo, who plays Dustin in the series], his voice has already dropped quite a bit, to the point where we couldn’t even do ADR [automated dialogue replacement] with him. We had to pitch it way up. It’s dropped. He’s grown. As much as I would love to have it be Christmas right after that, it’s just not feasible, so we’re going to skip a year. They’ll be a year older, and all their changes they’re going through, we’ll take that into account and kind of work that into the show.”
What happened to the characters during that year will also open up more story possibilities for the second season, added Ross Duffer.
“These characters have changed and the audience has to sort of fill in those gaps of what went on in that year,” he said. “To us, it’s exciting. So the fact that we have to make this jump, because of the kids, we’re trying to use that to our advantage.”
Despite experiencing what appeared to be a fatal attack from the creature, Matthew Modine’s creepy scientist, Dr. Martin Brenner, could also be primed for more sinister machinations in a second season, according to the show’s creators.
“I would say that if we were going to kill Brenner … as an audience member watching the show, if that was his death, that would be very unsatisfying to me – when the monster jumps on him and we cut away,” said Matt Duffer of the ultimate fate of Modine’s character. “He would deserve much more than that as an ending. So yes, there’s a possibility of seeing him again.”
The episode titles are more revealing than you might think
When season 2 was confirmed with a teaser, the video got fans buzzing. It included nine terms that seemed likely to be the episode titles, and sure enough, the Duffer brothers later confirmed that they were. The duo had come up with the idea of revealing them when a previous version of the teaser “wasn’t exciting enough,” Matt told THR. They wanted to hint at what lies ahead in season 2 — without giving away anything crucial.
That balance is delicate, though, and it turns out some fans have developed some pretty dead-on theories.
“Some of the fan theories online are amazing,” Matt told THR. “Most are wrong, but I’ve read a few that are right or very close. … Some of those people have figured stuff out based off of the chapter titles.”
Impressively, those people with correct theories managed to do it with titles that aren’t even final. The Duffer brothers revealed that they expect some to change.
“There were titles we didn’t want to put on there because we felt like it would give too much away,” said Matt.
The majority of the Stranger Things fan theories out there may be completely inaccurate, but the fact that the show has gotten viewers so engaged is exciting to the Duffers. Within hours of the show being released, they were floored to see how many fans had already finished season 1 and were talking about it online.
“It’s really gratifying because, while you’re making it, you’re sometimes only getting feedback from two or three people. It was Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, our two producers, and that was it,” said Matt. “It felt really small, so it was insane to see it go out into the world and be experienced by that many people.”
It is hard to remember when it ever was small, and it will be harder still when we’re scouring Reddit to try and figure out to which theories they may have been referring.
Official confirmation, major speculation
Official confirmation of the show’s second season arrived in August 2016, after intense speculation regarding the fate of the celebrated series.
The announcement was made on the show’s Facebook page with a brief confirmation that “The adventure continues” and that the series will be back in 2017. The announcement was accompanied by a brief video that, in keeping with the cryptic nature of the show, featured a series of mysterious terms flashing on the screen against the backdrop of the show’s iconic theme and logo font, coming together to form the words “Season Two.”
The terms that appeared in the teaser were: “Madmax,” “The Boy Who Came Back to Life,” “The Pumpkin Patch,” “The Palace,” “The Storm,” “The Pollywog,” “The Secret Cabin,” “The Brain,” and “The Lost Brother.” The video then explains that the adventure continues in the “fall of 1984.”
Initially, there was no official word on what the terms in the teaser referred to, but it seemed likely that they were the titles of each episode in the second season, given that Variety reports that the season will have nine episodes rather than the eight that made up the show’s first season. The Duffer brothers later confirmed this, but warned that some of the titles might change.
Prior to official confirmation of the show’s second season, Stranger Things actor Matthew Modine gave fans a cautious reason to celebrate when he seemed quite certain we’ll see more of the show. Speaking to French-language movie news site Premiere a week after the series premiered on Netflix, Modine promised, “Oh, there will be a season 2.”
You can see (and hear) Modine’s response for yourself in the excerpt from the interview embedded below:
Stranger Things : interview de Matthew Modine by PremiereFR
Speaking with IGN about what’s next for the series, Matt Duffer indicated that the follow-up to the series would be better described as a “sequel” than a “second season.”
Duffer’s comments prompted some speculation that the series might not bring back its entire cast for whatever comes next, but producer Shawn Levy seemed to address those concerns in a subsequent interview.
“The plan is to continue with this set of characters while introducing a few critical key new ones next season,” he told SlashFilm. “So I’ll just say that a lot of the big mysteries get answered at the end of Season 1, but we are very much kind of unearthing new problems and questions that merit future stories and future investigation in the most enjoyable way. So we are in love with our cast and our characters.
“Things end up being resolved to some extent at the end of Season 1, but not entirely,” continued Levy. “And that’s why we’re so hopeful we get another few seasons to live with these people a little longer.”
The questions that still need answers
As far as storylines go, the conclusion of Stranger Things left more than enough threads for its second season to explore.
According to the Duffer brothers, the pair has a long, detailed document that serves as a bible for the show, and the first season only scratched the surface of what their guide to the Stranger Things universe contains within its pages.
“There’s a lot there we don’t know or understand,” explained Ross in an interview with Variety. “Even with the Upside Down, we have a 30-page document that is pretty intricate in terms of what it all means, and where this monster actually came from, and why aren’t there more monsters. We have all this stuff that we just didn’t have time for, or we didn’t feel like we needed to get into in season one, because of the main tension of Will. We have that whole other world that we haven’t fully explored in this season, and that was very purposeful.”
First and foremost among the mysteries lingering past the first season is the status of Eleven, the telekinetic girl played by Millie Bobby Brown. She appeared to sacrifice herself at the end of the first season in order to rid the world of the creature terrorizing her friends, but Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) is later seen leaving a stack of Eggos — her favorite food — in a box in the woods. Could she be trapped in another dimension, as some fans have speculated?
According to Matt Duffer, the second season could bring Eleven and Hopper together to explore what happens next for the two characters whose lives have become intertwined.
“Obviously something happened to her when she destroyed and killed that monster and we don’t know where she went,” he said of Eleven. “Hopper is left with this guilt because he sold her out. We wanted to leave it sort of mysterious exactly what he knows… Have there been sightings in the woods or is he hoping she’s out there or has he already made contact with her? We don’t answer any of that, but we like the idea of potentially putting her and Hopper together.”
The final moments of the season-ending episode also had audiences wondering what’s up with Will Byers, the boy who spent much of the first season trapped in the creature’s alternate dimension. Last seen coughing up a weird, slug-like creature and having a sudden vision of the “Upside Down” dimension, Will’s condition could mean that the link between the two dimensions hasn’t been severed as cleanly as the characters hoped.
“Will’s been there for an entire week, and it’s had some kind of effect on him, both emotionally and perhaps physically,” hinted Ross Duffer. “The idea is he’s escaped this nightmare place, but has he really? That’s a place we wanted to go and potentially explore in season two. What effect does living in there for a week have on him? And what has been done to him? It’s not good, obviously.”
Finally, there wasn’t much closure for the story of Hawkins National Laboratory and the organization’s experiments, led by the creepy Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine). Sheriff Hopper was seen getting into an unidentified black car at one point after leaving the hospital where Will was recovering from his ordeal, so it’s reasonable to believe that HNL — or whatever organization is behind it — is still doing whatever it’s doing, and that could mean more trouble.
“[We like] the idea of going back to the laboratory and pulling back the curtain a little bit,” said Matt Duffer (via an interview with IGN) of returning to the mysterious laboratory in the second season. “Maybe they brought someone new in. It’s not as evil and mysterious as it was in Season 1. We might start to get into what they’re doing a bit little more. Maybe they seem a little bit more friendly … as least at the beginning. A lot of the agents involved in that project are dead.
Update: We added some information on how the show briefly brought back Eleven’s short hair for season 2.
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