‘Stranger Things’ Season 2: New Cast Additions Cause Controversy [SPOILERS]
Warning: This article contains potential Stranger Things Season 2 spoilers.
Ever since Netflix confirmed it had ordered Stranger Things Season 2, fans of the nostalgic 80s thriller have been clamoring for cast news and other spoilers. Now Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that young actors Sadie Sink (American Odyssey) and Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers) will play the major roles of Max and Billy in the upcoming season, which is being billed as a “sequel” by creators Matt and Ross Duffer.
According to the streaming network, Max is “a tough and confident girl whose appearance, behavior and pursuits seem more typical of boys than girls in this era. She has a complicated history and is generally suspicious of those around her.”
Meanwhile, Billy is “Max’s hyper-confident and edgy older step-brother. He steals girlfriends away from their boyfriends, is great at drinking games, and drives a black Camaro. But lurking under his apparent charisma is a violent and unpredictable nature.”
Not everyone was pleased with the new Stranger Things Season 2 cast additions. The New York Daily News reported that some fans took to Twitter to criticize the show for adding two more white characters to a cast that features few people of color.
The outcry caused actor Finn Wolfhard (Mike) to post a tweet asking for everyone to “calm down.”
In response one fan wrote, “If lucas is still the only poc and theres no lgbtq+ rep then i wont love it (sic).”
Another fan responded by saying, “Im just mad because yall chose a white girl when there were so many good WoC [WOMEN OF COLOR] to represent her (sic).”
Finally, another fan pointed out, “I don’t think a 11 year old is in charge of casting (sic).”
For the record, Wolfhard is 13-years-old, but the point is valid.
Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy told the Hollywood Reporter about the Season 2 additions to the cast.
“There’s definitely a handful of really compelling new characters this season, but [we’re] absolutely servicing the core group first and foremost. Like the show itself, it’s multigenerational new characters and really, really intriguing ones.”
#StrangerThings update: Season 2 character details revealed https://t.co/Yb7FLr2k8E pic.twitter.com/K6Y5ykVzji
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 15, 2016
In late August, the Duffer Brothers dropped some major hints about Stranger Things Season 2 in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
For instance, James Cameron will be a major influence, according to Matt.
“I know movie sequels got a lot of s—, but the ones we look up to aspire to pivot and do something different. 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.”
Meanwhile, the brothers promised that Stranger Things Season 2 will explore much more of the Upside Down realm.
“We kinda just peeled back the curtain and revealed a tiny bit of the Upside Down,” said Matt. “So we definitely want to explore a little bit more. There’s a lot we don’t know about the Upside Down at the end of Season 1.”
Matt also hinted that the monster that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) appeared to kill may not be dead.
“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?”
What do you think of the latest cast additions to Stranger Things Season 2?
Stranger Things Season 2 returns to Netflix in 2017.
[Featured Image by Netflix]
