It’s no secret that the runaway success of Netflix’s Stranger Things has resulted in a particular air of pressure lingering over the show’s sophomore run. Pegged for premiere sometime this summer, the likes of Shawn Levy and co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer have discussed those rising expectations in the past, as viewers look forward to the next chapter with bated breath. It’ll run a little longer than its predecessor – up one episode from the previous eight – and after expanding the show’s ensemble cast, we’re now beginning to form a clearer picture of what to expect from Stranger Things season 2.
The latest morsel of information hails from this weekend’s Fan2Sea Comic-Con panel (via Hollywood Life), where actor David Harbour was on hand to solicit questions about Netflix’s original series. Harbour was understandably coy about the arc of season 2, but he did confirm that viewers will be returning to Indiana a full year after the events of the original season – and there’s trouble brewing in Hawkins.
“It’s a year later in the story, so there are several things that happened last year, like Will has come back. There are certain people in the town that know what happened, and then certain people that don’t know what happened. So there’s a lot of fallout with who knows what.”
When pressed about the newcomers to the cast – Sean Astin, Paul Reiser and Linnea Berthelsen are just some of the new faces confirmed for season 2 – Harbour teased a potential love triangle between his Jim Hopper, Astin’s character and Joyce, the chain-smoking mother to Will Byers as played by Winona Ryder. Astin is on board as Bob Newby, a “kindhearted former nerd who went to high school with Joyce and Hopper and now manages the local Hawkins RadioShack.”
“We have Sean Astin…he’s Winona’s new boyfriend…much to the chagrin to the Chief of Police.”
Stranger Things returns to a Netflix for a second season sometime this summer. It’ll ostensibly be bigger in scope than its predecessor, but director/producer Shawn Levy and the Duffer brothers have stressed their desire to keep the focus firmly on Will Byers and the rest of the gang.
