‘Stranger Things’ has quickly become one of the most talked about shows on television and now we have some clues for season 2….
If you haven’t watched the eight episode first season of ‘Stranger Things’, just stop whatever you’re doing (after you read this story of course) and go watch it.
Those in the know understand that ‘Stranger Things’ has become one of the most talked about shows of the summer after the science fiction series that felt like Stephen King met Steven Spielberg in the 80’s and they decided to collaborate on a series together became a hit sensation.
Ever since debuting on Netflix, ‘Stranger Things’ has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, which virtually locks up a season 2 for the series despite no official renewal as of yet from the subscription based service.
Still, just about everybody knows that ‘Stranger Things’ will be back for season 2 and that means the Duffer Brothers — the brilliant sibling duo responsible for the show — are already hard at work putting together a story and idea for the sophomore year for the show.
First things first because ‘Stranger Things’ is dealing with a primary cast that involves a lot of younger actors and actresses, jumping the show forward in terms of time is almost a certainty because kids grow up fast and it’s nearly impossible to hide that on screen.
In fact, actor Gaten Matarazzo — who plays Dustin — experienced so much change in his voice just during filming of the first season that they could barely use him for voiceovers when the show was being dubbed in editing. So the Duffer brothers know when ‘Stranger Things’ does return for season two, all of the kids will be aged forward at least a year, just like in real life.
“You have to do the Harry Potter thing. You have to jump a year,” Matt Duffer said recently. “As much as I would love to have it be Christmas right after that, it’s just not feasible, so we’re going to skip a year.
“They’ll be a year older and all their changes they’re going through, we’ll take that into account and kind of work that into the show.”
If there’s one benefit to the time jump, it also gives the Duffer brothers a chance to explore what happened in the past after Will Byers returned home from “the upside down” world. We already saw the creature that crawled out of him during the finale, which only left further speculation about what he brought back with him after spending weeks in the alternate universe.
“It’s also just exciting having these initial conversations about it because the jump allows us to say “what happened in that year?” Ross Duffer added. “It actually opens up a lot more storytelling possibilities. These characters have changed and the audience has to sort of fill in those gaps of what went on in that year.
“To us, it’s exciting. So the fact that we have to make this jump, because of the kids, we’re trying to use that to our advantage.”
As far as Eleven goes — the mysterious and powerful young girl who befriended the Dungeon and Dragons playing kids during season one — who then disappeared after stopping the monster who kidnapped Will and killed poor Barb, that’s another part of the story the Duffer brothers are excited to explore with season 2.
Eleven was a tragic figure in many ways during season one because she was clearly tortured by her captors from an early age, but after her escape, she finally felt some sense of normalcy while befriending Mike and his fellow nerds who were trying to locate their friend Will.
But not all stories have a happy ending and Eleven disappearing while destroying the upside down monster just left us with more questions going into season two — and that’s exactly what the Duffer brothers wanted all along.
“We wanted to leave it purposefully ambiguous. We always, from the very beginning, liked this sort of childlike idea that this escapee from this facility with these amazing powers would be able to just move into Mike’s basement and they’d have this wonderful life together and she’d go to school. It’s not that simple,” Ross Duffer explained.
“The goal is to make it as complicated as possible, and without going into too much detail, to really tear them apart at the end of that season, to make things much more difficult. But we love Eleven.”
Is Eleven dead? Did she just get stuck in the upside down world? Is is possible she transported to an entirely new dimension never before seen?
What we know for sure is that Hopper went into the woods in the season finale and opened up a hidden box where he left a container full of food topped off with waffles — which just happened to be Eleven’s favorite food — and that certainly leads us to believe she’s still alive.
And of course, the Duffer brothers are clearly teasing that Eleven is far from finished when it comes to the story of ‘Stranger Things’.
“What did James Cameron say? No one’s ever dead in sci-fi,” Ross Duffer added.
Check out season one of ‘Stranger Things’ currently airing on Netflix and stay tuned for news on a renewal for ‘Stranger Things’ season 2 in 2017!
H/T: IGN
