Prepare for Even More Horror in Stranger Things Season Two

To no one’s surprise, Stranger Things was picked up for a second season with nine episodes after season one’s smashing success last summer. The ‘80s sci-fi series blended the fantastical years of childhood chutzpah and imagination with a horrifying alternate universe. The second season will be rolled out all in one binge-able sitting on Netflix this Halloween. While we are still a few months out from that date, news about the second season has slowly been leaking out through interviews with the cast and crew.

It has already been confirmed that almost every main cast member from season one will return for season two, and they’ll be joined by several new characters, including both adults and children. These new additions to Hawkins, Indiana, will bring more interpersonal drama to the series via romance and drama, complicating their lives further while the characters cope with the emotional scars left by the events of season one.

With character details out of the way, there will also be more outright horror in season two. The series was already imbued with a heavy dose of suspense, and producer Shawn Levy has teased “forces of evil that are inherent in season two [that] will make that Demogorgon look quaint.” It’s hard to imagine anything worse than being hunted by a Demogorgon in the Upside Down, but the cliffhanger in season one’s finale did allude to Will (Noah Schnapp) bringing parts of the Upside Down with him into our world after puking up a slug-like horror in the bathroom sink.

Co-creator Ross Duffer explained what this will mean for season two in an interview with TV Line. “Last season, a lot of the horror and a lot of what was happening with Will was off screen in the Upside Down. That’s not the case [in season two],” he said. “The horror is more up-close and personal.” Seems like slugs will be the least of poor Will’s troubles. Duffer also alluded to what sounds like a return to the Upside Down for Will: “Something happens to Will in the first couple of episodes that’s very, very disturbing.”

We still have many unconfirmed hopes and suspicions about season two, but we do know season two begins one year after the end of season one and, perhaps the most exciting news of all, there will be #JusticeForBarb.