In “Stranger Things” Season 2, things are getting flipped, turned upside down.
Everyone, including the cast, has been freaking out since the recent Super Bowl teaser, which seemingly showed Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) alive and a giant monster terrorizing the town of Hawkins, Indiana, but more specific details have been a mystery until now.
In new interviews from Entertainment Weekly, we’re finally learning what’s going down in the upcoming season.
Events in the show will begin around one year after Season 1 ended. The boys will be going as Ghostbusters on Halloween. But remember, after coughing up a slug-like creature (possibly a pollywog) in the Season 1 finale, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) isn’t doing too well. In fact, co-creator Matt Duffer told EW that Byers seems to be going through post-traumatic stress disorder.
“He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down — the question is whether they’re real or not,” said Duffer.
Elsewhere, Joyce (Winona Ryder) is now going out with an old high-school classmate named Bob (Sean Astin), and Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) is struggling to cover things up after the craziness in Season 1.
“It kind of falls on Hopper to be the voice of authority to say, ‘This did happen and this didn’t happen,’” Harbour told EW. “He’s struggling with the compromise that takes him to, having to lie and cover things up.”
Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are having a tough time at the beginning of the season, too, dealing with the deaths of Barb (Shannon Purser) and, supposedly, Eleven. Co-creator Ross Duffer said the pair are “the most screwed up,” and we’ll see the effects of their trauma.
Besides Joyce’s new boyfriend, other new characters include brother-and-sister duo Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and Max (Sadie Sink). The latter is apparently a romantic interest for both Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo). There’s also Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser), who now runs Hawkins Lab.
The portal to the Upside Down still exists. But Matt Duffer says the season will contain “different kinds of horror” besides the monsters.
It won’t all be terrifying. Dustin (Matarazzo) is apparently adopting a “polliwog-like” pet.
“It’s a little creature I get to bond with,” Matarazzo told EW. “It’s obviously not from this planet or this dimension.”
The “Stranger Things” creators have already gone on record saying a few of the Season 2 fan theories floating around are “right or very close.” Based on the new information, it seems increasingly likely that the Season 2 episode “The Pollywog” is about the slug-like creature we saw in Season 1.
But what about the other theories? Could Will Byers or Eleven actually turn evil? And will we finally find out if Steve Harrington is the father of Jean-Ralphio from “Parks and Rec”?
We’ll have to wait for the Halloween premiere.
All we know for sure is ... Steve Harrington is definitely Jean-Ralphio’s father. Like, duh.
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