Pre-production on the second season of Netflix darling Stranger Things is officially underway, and the online streamer has unveiled a black-and-white picture of a table read to prove it.
Bringing together the younger residents of Hawkins, Indiana – and a couple of new faces to boot – here we see the likes of Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) and Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler) with an early draft of the script. Confirming those relentless rumors to be true, Millie Bobby Brown is back, back, back as Eleven.
Elsewhere in the picture, you’ll see Power Rangers star Dacre Montgomery, a newcomer to the world of creepy parallel dimensions and government conspiracies. He’ll be playing Billy, the “hyper-confident and edgy” older step-brother to Max, a “tough and confident” tomboy bearing the brunt of a complicated history. Sadie Sink clinched that role only a few weeks ago.
Nudging the paranormal action into the year 1984, there are precious few story details available for Stranger Things season 2 – no bad thing, of course – but we do understand the show’s second run will stretch for nine episodes in total.
Of course, the big question on everyone’s mind is how do you go about topping such a barnstorming debut? That’s something producer Shawn Levy touched base on quite recently, conceding that the show’s rise to prominence has been “truly shocking but absolutely thrilling.” James Cameron’s résumé – namely Aliens and Terminator 2 – has been cited as a jumping-off point, with co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer aiming to craft a sequel to their original “eight-hour movie.”
The big question now is, can Stranger Things sidestep the sophomore slump? Expect season 2 to premiere for a nine-episode run – up one from the original eight – mid-way through 2017.
