In case you’ve forgotten, here’s a little recap of how we left things at the end of Stranger Things season one: We discovered that the portal to the Upside Down was opened up when the CIA used Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) psychokinetic power to eavesdrop on the Russians, which caused her to run into the Demogorgon. Will (Noah Schnapp) was very dramatically rescued and reunited with his loved ones.
Then Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) was taken away in a mysterious black car after leaving Will at the hospital. Eleven literally exploded the Demogorgon with her powers but disappeared immediately afterwards. And in a stunningly mundane plot point, Mike’s sister Nancy (Natalia Dyer) got back together with Steve (Joe Keery).
According to the showrunners, season two will deal with the business of trying to return to normal in Hawkins, when normal may no longer be a possibility for our heroes. And there are some big cliff-hangers still to be resolved.
Firstly, in a massive hint that she might still be alive, Chief Hopper left Eggos, Eleven’s favourite snack in a box in the woods. Whether she’s trapped in the Upside Down or roaming around said woods remains to be answered. And secondly, Will is clearly still being affected by his own time in the Upside Down. We saw him vomit up a slug and then experience a terrifying flashback.
A teaser trailer shown during the Super Bowl suggested that the release date for season two would be Halloween but the actual release will come four days before on the 27th October, which isn’t nearly as cool. It does mean that fans will be able to binge the whole thing before Halloween, in time for some brand new Stranger Things costume inspiration (the gang dress up in some awesome, period-appropriate Ghostbusters costumes in the trailer).
All the main cast of kids are slated to return, including Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, alongside co-stars Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike). Joining the cast this season will be Sadie Sink as Max, a ‘tomboy with a complicated history and suspicious streak’ and Australian actor Dacre Montgomery as her older brother Billy, a ‘classic girlfriend stealing bad boy’.
Joining the new kids on the block are some exciting adult actors, including Paul Reiser, Linnea Berthelsen and Sean-freaking-Astin. Interesting, both Reiser and Astin were already stars in the actual eighties but whether or not that means anything plot-wise remains to be seen. Might some breaking of the fourth-wall be on the cards in the new season?
Stranger Things 2 will run for nine episodes, a slight increase on the previous eight, and takes place in 1984, a year on from the previous installment. Writers Matt and Ross Duffer have confirmed that they have a whole story arc planned out more than three seasons so Netflix-willing, the show isn’t going away anytime soon. It now even has its own mobile game. A third season is apparently already in the works and Netflix tend to book shows for two seasons at a time so we can be fairly certain that a fourth season won’t be far behind.
