Details on the upcoming second season of Netflix's pop culture sensation Stranger Things are being kept tightly under wraps, which I can appreciate – I knew very little about the first season of Stranger Things before I watched it and it turned out to be one of my favorite bits of entertainment to be released in 2016, so I definitely don't want the second season to be spoiled for me before I get a chance to watch it when it hits Netflix this Halloween.
A promo for season 2 was released last Sunday and aired during the Super Bowl, offering glimpses of intriguing imagery and familiar faces, but at the same time revealing very little.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer have shared the most information we've gotten about season 2 yet, giving updates on what most of the characters will be doing when the show catches up with them almost one year after the events of the first season.
The Duffers reveal that Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is suffering from a form of PTSD after his experiences in the mysterious Upside Down dimension, and that his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) will be dating a new character played by Sean Astin – something co-star David Harbour recently gave away. Harbour's police chief character Jim Hopper has swept some of the things that happened in season 1 under the rug. Young siblings Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are mourning the friends they lost.
The Duffers also talk a bit about some of the new characters we'll be meeting in season 2. A friendly doctor played by Paul Reiser is briefly mentioned, but receiving more focus are another young brother and sister duo, Max and Billy, played by Dacre Montgomery and Sadie Sink. Max will be befriending the main group of kids and Lucas and Dustin (Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo) will both develop crushes on her.
But Billy, he sounds like trouble, and the Duffers build up my interest in this character even more by referencing Stephen King while describing him.
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."
King does indeed tend to feature some despicable human villains who can really get your blood boiling while reading his books, so I'm both looking forward to and dreading seeing what sort of trouble such a character could cause for the kids in Stranger Things.
Montgomery will be seen fighting the forces of evil on the big screen as the Red Ranger in next month's POWER RANGERS movie. Seven months later, it sounds like he'll be the character we'll love to hate on Stranger Things season 2.
Beyond Billy, for me the most interesting thing mentioned by the Duffers in this interview is the fact that Dustin will be acquiring a polliwog-like pet from a different dimension. Dustin bonding with an otherworldly creature sounds like an adorable sight, and the idea instantly makes me think of the caterpillar dog in HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY. It's always good any time something makes me think of HOUSE II.