‘Stranger Things 2’: New Pics, Spoilers Tease Season 2 Of The Netflix Hit

Stranger Things fans have been trying to piece together the clues for the upcoming second season of the Netflix hit, but spoilers have been few and far between. A Super Bowl ad finally gave fans a sneak peek at what to expect, but it was cryptic at best. But now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have revealed a basic outline of the new season’s plot.

It’s been known for a while that Stranger Things 2 picks up in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1984, one year after the events seen in the first eight episodes took place. While young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is reunited with his friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), he’s still haunted by his unplanned visit to the Upside Down. Suffice it to say, that spewed slug viewers saw at the end of the final episode will most definitely be addressed in the sequel.

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“He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down—the question is whether they’re real or not,” Matt Duffer told EW. “So it seems like he’s having some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Meanwhile, Will’s frazzled mama Joyce (Winona Ryder) is now in a romantic relationship with a high school classmate named Bob (Sean Astin), while the other man in her life, Hopper (David Harbour), is keeping himself busy covering up last year’s bizarre events.

Speaking of those events, in true movie sequel form, the death of forgotten Hawkins teen Barb (Shannon Purser) will be addressed more thoroughly in Stranger Things 2, according to The Wrap.

Despite the fact that Stranger Things producers have gone to extreme lengths to keep spoilers at bay, going so far as to seek the advice of Game of Thrones producers to “learn security protocols,” new images posted by EW and Digital Spy give a closer look at the upcoming episodes of the Netflix hit. In one image, Will Byers looks very out of it, and in another, Will’s big brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) appears terrified while in a car with Nancy (Natalia Dyer). Is that a shipper alert?

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As for other characters, Hawkins newcomer Billy (Dacre Montgomery) will be the town’s human villain in the new episodes, while his sister Max (Sadie Sink) will be the gang’s latest gal pal (and could even be the center of a love triangle). Of course, the gang’s original female squad member, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is also back, but this season the telekinetic heroine will swap out her signature buzzcut for a curly brown wig.

Other Stranger Things 2 newbies include Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser), Roman (Linnea Berthelsen), a woman who doesn’t live in Hawkins but is somehow connected to the events that occurred in the small town, and Dustin’s (Gaten Matarazzo) new polliwog-type pet that’s “obviously not from this planet or this dimension.”

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In addition, there will be a new monster featured in the new episodes, details of which are being kept tightly under wraps. While Season 1’s monster was dubbed Demogorgon after the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons monster, for Season 2 fans are speculating the monster will be modeled after D&D’s Thessalhydr. The Duffer Brothers told EW fans can expect “different kinds of horror” for Stranger Things 2.

As for those fans who’ve been busy analyzing the upcoming episode titles ever since they were teased when the initial Stranger Things 2 announcement was made last summer, you may have to start from scratch. The Duffers told EW they are changing some of the episode titles because Stranger Things fans are just too smart.

“Some of them are changing,” Matt Duffer said of the Stranger Things episode titles. “Some of them we didn’t put because these people are smart on the f***ing internet… I’ve seen videos analyzing the chapter titles and they’re right on a lot.”

The original Netflix announcement, which you can see below, teased the episode title names: “Madmax,” “The Boy Who Came Back to Life,” “The Pumpkin Patch,” “The Palace,” “The Storm,” “The Pollywog,” “The Secret Cabin,” “The Brain,” and “The Lost Brother.”

In addition to the talent in front of the camera, Pixar movie director Andrew Stanton has signed on to direct two episodes of Stranger Things 2. Stanton’s impressive film resume includes Wall-E, Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.

Stranger Things 2 premieres on Oct. 31, 2017, on Netflix. Take a look at the new Stranger Things 2 trailer below.

[Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]