Stranger Things Will Return to Cause More Nightmares in Season Two

Stranger Things will be back. Netflix has renewed the show for a nine-episode second season due out in 2017, Entertainment Weekly reports. Thanks to a particularly strong eight-episode debut, the show has become one of the summer’s breakthrough hits. Now, it looks like we’ll be getting a little more strangeness in our lives.

To announce the return of the show, Netflix unveiled a video, which can be seen below, containing a version of the show’s title sequence with what appear to be the second season’s nine episode titles. The video also tells us that, “In the fall of 1984, the adventure continues.”

Stranger Things focuses on a small town in Indiana that is forced to deal with an interdimensional portal and the monsters that come with it.The show’s many callbacks and references to the ‘80s have made it one of the most discussed shows of the year, so a renewal seemed almost inevitable.

Creators Matt and Ross Duffer will return to the series for its second season. Executive producers Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen will also return alongside the Duffer Brothers. In speaking with EW, the Duffer Brothers revealed some details about what season two will contain.

While some argued the show should be an anthology series, the Duffer Brothers are now saying that season two will follow all of the characters from the first season. While the pair never really considered an anthology series, they did discuss a shift in time. “I think we talked like a larger time jump where the kids are older now and it’s a different decade,” said Ross Duffer. “That’s something we batted around from the very beginning. But for us, there’s still more story here, there’s still things that are unresolved.”

This means that the central characters will all be returning. In addition, Stranger Things 2 will also introduce four new characters. “There’s going to be a lot of new and interesting dynamics that we didn’t see in season 1,” says Matt Duffer, though he offered no other details on the new additions.

The new season will also take its influence from many of the best movie sequels of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and especially from James Cameron. As Matt Duffer puts it:

There’s Temple of Doom, Aliens, Terminator 2. I guess a lot of this is James Cameron. But he’s brilliant. And I think one of the reasons his sequels are as successful as they are is he makes them feel very different without losing what we loved about the original. So I think we kinda looked to him and what he does and tried to capture a little bit of the magic of his work.

There will also be some new settings outside of Hawkins, Ind. “We will venture a little bit outside of Hawkins,” said Matt of the small town that was season one’s central location. “I will say the opening scene does not take place in Hawkins.”

Another new(ish) setting will come in the form of a larger peek at the Upside Down, Stranger Things’ alternate dimension. Said Ross:

We obviously have this gate to another dimension, which is still very much open in the town of Hawkins. And a lot of questions there in terms of, if the Monster is dead, was it a singular monster? What else could be out there? We really don’t go in there much until they go in to find Will at the end. So we’ve opened up this doorway, and to us it’s exciting to talk about, like, what else is behind there? There’s a lot more mystery there to be solved.

Fan excitement for this second season is matched by the brothers. Said Matt:

We’re really excited about continuing the story. There’s a comfort factor in that we know people love and have responded to this world and these characters. As much as possible, we’re trying to approach it the same as season 1, which is to write stuff that we’re excited about and we think is cool. The hope is that it translates to the fans and that people fall in love with it again.

Stranger Things 2 is coming in 2017. Watch the new season’s teaser below.