Just last Friday it was officially confirmed that Millie Bobby Brown would be returning for the sequel to Netflix’s smash hit Stranger Things. At an event screening for 2011’s Real Steel, executive producer Shawn Levy spoke with Collider, revealing The Duffer Brothers and himself are already looking ahead as to where they want to go once the show is renewed for a third season.
Levy:
We are not gonna be caught off guard and we don’t wanna be making stuff up like the day before we have to write it and make it, so we are definitely optimistic and we have started thinking ahead.
The Duffers have already said in the past that that do have an ending for the series in mind, it’s just a matter of how long it takes to get there.
Back at the end of August when the second season was announced, a total of nine chapter headings were revealed in an official teaser for the follow-up, extending the episode count by one more than the first season. With an additional episode in the mix, as well as a bigger budget allowing for better, more polished visual effects it would only make sense for the production to take a little longer than the first season. Levy was unable to speculate on a release date but did offer some insight:
That I can’t say. I do have a sense of it. It was promised when we announced that we were picked up for Season 2 and we gave those chapter headings, I believe it ended with ‘Coming in 2017’ and that much is true. You can do a little bit of math, we’re not magicians so there’s no way it launches in Spring since I just admitted we started filming today, and we’re doing nine.
Stranger Things possessed the DNA of a Steven Spielberg blockbuster smashed together with a Stephen King summer read so it would be disappointing if the sequel isn’t able to make it’s debut in the summer of 2017, however. No doubt would the sci-fi horror mystery adventure be a perfect fit for a release around Halloween, although the wait would be excruciating. But if it means a better product, I think we can all manage.
Season two will pick up a year later in the fall of 1984 and explore the consequences of Will Byers’ week spent in the upside down, and the portal that is still open at the Department of Energy. Levy offered some further insight into just exactly what Will and the Byers family, as well as his friends, will be struggling with when we pick up with them a year later.
“I’m not gonna say how much time has gone by. It is not the next day, I’ll say that. And there are several new characters who I think several of them are going to be new fan-favorites because they’re great, great new characters. But we are definitely sticking primarily with our core group, and what is different, how are they changed from the experience of last season… maybe ‘normal’ is never possible again.”
The second season will see several new characters added into the mix. Just yesterday it was announced that Sean Astin (The Goonies), Paul Reiser (Aliens), and Danish actress Linnea Berthelsen will be joining the cast along with newcomers Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers) and Sadie Sink.
Levy also added that he would be in the Directors seat for the third and fourth episodes this year, just as he was in the first season.
Yes, we are a little superstitious so just like last year, they’re doing 1 and 2, I’m going in and doing 3 and 4. So the first four are gonna kick off exactly the same as last time… I am going to start prepping right around Thanksgiving and I’ll be filming my episodes through December and January.
But it doesn’t stop there, actor Charlie Heaton is also currently promoting his new film, Shut In. While speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Heaton offered some insight into the scope of the second season while assuring it is still very much the same Hawkins, Indiana we were introduced to in the first season. The actor teased the fourth episode titled “The Palace” (directed by Levy) will be huge. My hope is that “The Palace” is actually some sort of reference to Pankot Palace as The Duffers already mentioned Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as a major influence. It would be a dream come true of mine to see The Goonies dropped into the mineshaft chase sequence from the end of Temple of Doom.
The adventure continues in the fall of 1984.
Stranger Things 2 hits Netflix sometime in 2017.
Alternate World 