With the production of Stranger Things’ second season now well under way, it seems more and more plot details are starting to trickle their way out to fans from Hawkins, Indiana, and the Upside Down.
Today, Entertainment Weekly gave us a bit more to chew on concerning what’s up with the new story and characters. Starting things off almost a year after the events of the first season, we’ll first see the boys (with Will Byers back in the fold) trick-or-treating in suspiciously accurate Ghostbusters getups, consistent with what was already shown in Sunday’s short trailer. Co-creator Matt Duffer indicates that things are still amiss with the younger Byers boy, saying, “He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down—the question is whether they’re real or not. So it seems like he’s having some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
It turns out the newly cast Sean Astin’s Bob (The Goonies, Rudy, The Lord of the Rings) will be dating Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers, as the two happen to be old classmates from high school. Ryder thinks the new relationship reflects the fact that “[Joyce] wants a good father figure in her sons’ lives.” At the same time, David Harbour’s Hopper still struggles with the disturbing supernatural knowledge he gained last season, as he has to decide which otherworldly details are safe to relate to Joyce and others, and which are too dangerous to share.
Siblings Mike and Nancy have been left deeply affected by the deaths of last season, each still mourning Eleven and Barb, respectively. Another pair of siblings, Dacre Montgomery’s Billy and Sadie Sink’s Max, will also arrive in Hawkins to stir things up in season two. While Max apparently serves as a “romantic interest” for Lucas and Dustin, Matt Duffer describes Billy as the show’s first Stephen King-esque villain.
Finally, we learned today that Dustin will come to bond with an otherworldly, “polliwog-like pet,” and that Paul Reiser’s (Aliens) seemingly amiable Dr. Owens will be taking over for Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner at the small town’s mysterious Upside Down-adjacent lab.
It goes without saying that no new details have been provided about what’s up with Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven in season two, though we think we can all agree that her new hairdo is a direct reference to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from the Alien franchise, right? You can take a look at her new curly locks in EW’s photo gallery here, which also gives some new looks into Stranger Things’ forthcoming season. The new episodes are scheduled to hit Netflix on Halloween. For now, go ahead and check out the past weekend’s Super Bowl spot below.