The moment we’ve all been waiting for finally happened today – Netflix officially announced a second season of their hit sci-fi thriller, Stranger Things, along with a teaser video that gave us a few hints about what’s next for the gang.

Stranger Things was easily one of the most talked about shows of the summer. Within just a few days of its release, season 1 gained a massive cult following of diehard fans. The show, which is full of ’80s throwbacks and visuals, was only eight episodes long (perfect for one sitting), but that still gave viewers enough time to deeply connect with its quirky yet relatable characters.

The story followed the disappearance of a young boy (Will Byers), as well as a telekinetic girl (Eleven) who helped his friends (Mike, Lucas, and Dustin) in their search, while Will’solder brother (Jonathan), his mother (Joyce Byers), and the town police chief (Hopper) started their own investigations. What they discovered was a secret government lab right in the middle of their sleepy town of Hawkins. Hawkins Lab opened a door to another dimension called The Upside Down, while also spawning a demon creature known as the Demogorgon.

The season 1 finale left us with plenty of burning questions about the fates of our new favorite characters that we hope will be answered in season 2. If you’ve been eating, living, and breathing Stranger Things for the past few months like I have, you know how dire these situation are. Is Eleven alive? Is Will sick? Is Barb really dead? What is Chief Hopper doing in that evil government car?

Following the official renewal, here is what we know so far…

Episode Titles

Because the Duffer brothers (showrunners) want to develop Stranger Things as one really long movie, they decided to add an extra episode to the next season, which will premiere sometime in 2017. Along with the Netflix teaser video, titles for each chapter (or episode) were revealed as well.

• Madmax
• The Boy Who Came Back To Life
• The Pumpkin Patch
• The Palace
• The Storm
• The Pollywog
• The Secret Cabin
• The Brain
• The Lost Brother

In an earlier interview, the showrunners discussed following a Harry Potter style time line for the show, as in each season starts with a new school year, because most of the main characters are actual children. It looks like they are going for it, considering the third episode would fall right around the time of Halloween. The story will official continue in the Fall of 1984, just as the kids are heading back to school.

As far as the rest of the titles, maybe a “pollywog” is a new creature from the Upside Down, Will might die from the parasites inside of him and come back to life, and “Max” might possibly be a new character.

Remember this newspaper clipping that was seen in the finale? Will is the boy who came back to life…

 

New Characters

 

Not Barb, she’s still dead.

In recent interview EW had with the Duffer brothers (as in today), it was revealed that there will be four new characters showing up in season 2:

“There’s going to be a lot of new and interesting dynamics that we didn’t see in season 1.”

Maybe “The Lost Brother” is a new character? I hope so because poor Jonathon (Will’s older brother) has already been through enough in the first season. This might also explain who “Max” is from the first episode title. 

The rest of the cast is returning, except Barb…she’s still dead. Because the story is picking up in the Fall of 1984 and there are still things that need to be resolved, we can expect to see the Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Joyce (Winona Ryder), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Chief Hopper (David Harbour) and so on.

Except Ross Duffer terrified us to death when he dropped this bomb:

“We don’t know about Eleven…we leave that up in the air.“

Eleven has to come back – mainly because her and Mike have to make it to the big snowball dance together…

 

 

Leaving Hawkins

Part of the appeal of the show was that it was set in a small, sleepy, town in the middle of nowhere- cut off from the rest of the world. A kind of place where everyone knows your name (no, not Cheers), it’s safe for kids to freely ride their bikes around, and nothing bad ever happens. At least until a super-secret lab opened a portal to another dimension and a devil monster was released.

Season 2 will continue in Hawkins, Indiana but will also leave town for a few episodes:

“We will venture a little bit outside of Hawkins. I will say the opening scene [of the premiere] does not take place in Hawkins,” Matt Duffer explained.

OOOOoooh! Where are we going?

 

 

 

More Upside Down

Season 2 is definitely taking us back into the dark abyss known as the Upside Down. Which is great because we need to know what the heck is inside of that mysterious egg that Chief Hopper found. There is so much more to explore within an entirely new dimension, that may or may not be toxic to humans, is covered in black goo, and spawned a blood-thirsty Demagorgon. 

The Duffer brothers explained how much further into the Upside Down they will be taking us:

“We kinda just peeled back the curtain and revealed a tiny bit of the Upside Down,” says 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.” Adds Ross: “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? We really don’t go in there much until they go in to find Will at the end. So we’ve opened up this doorway, and to us it’s exciting to talk about, like, what else is behind there? There’s a lot more mystery there to be solved.“

Doesn’t that egg remind of you the cocoons in James Cameron’s Aliens? I wonder what other ’80s sci-fi classics will influence the series…

 

 

James Cameron

 

Speaking of James Cameron, the Duffer brothers will be taking inspiration from him and how well he handles sequels:

“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.” 

Although we have yet to see the many Avatar sequels coming our way, we have seen Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Piranha Part Two: The Spawning – all of which are excellent follow ups to their original counterparts (that last one is a joke, but it is a Cameron sequel).

Of course, we’ll let you know more about season 2 of Stranger Things as soon as we do. Until then, a re-watch might be in order.