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New "Stranger Things 2" cover story from EW (9/27/17)

Dalek

Member
Stranger Things 2 returns to Upside Down with new monster, bigger story

Video interview with some of the cast at the link.

Stranger Things' telekinetic teen Eleven (breakout star Millie Bobby Brown) may be able to lift government kidnapper vans but series creators Ross and Matt Duffer can rattle off the biggest movies of the summer of 1984 without blinking. Their passion for pop culture fueled the creation of Netflix's Things, a tribute to the movies they loved as kids in North Carolina (think E.T., The Goonies, Stand by Me). ”Obviously they're nerdy, but that's what makes them so cool," says Brown. ”It makes [Stranger Things] so authentic because it comes from their hearts." The Duffers' canny but old-fashioned combination of emotion and thrills drove the series — about four small-town Indiana friends who find themselves dealing with a portal to a different dimension — to monster-level success after its 2016 premiere. ”I don't think Netflix thought it was going to be as huge as it became, but neither did we," admits Matt.


On Oct. 27, fans will finally get to see Things' bigger, badder second installment (To celebrate the return, EW has three different covers featuring the cast). ”It's Stranger Things but just sorta hopped up a little," says Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler. ”It's almost like season 1 was drinking a Coke and season 2 they drank a Red Bull." The Duffers have envisioned the return as not so much a second season but a movie sequel. To that end, when the show comes back it will have the cinematic moniker Stranger Things 2. ”When we started describing it as a sequel, Netflix was like, ‘Don't do that, because sequels are known to be bad,' " says Matt. ”I was like, ‘Yes, but what about T2 and Aliens and Toy Story 2 and Godfather II?' " Before the official greenlight came for Things 2, the Duffers had been quietly plotting the next round of interdimensional adventure. Says Matt, ”The good news is that a lot of what we wanted to see or what we responded to, that seems to be what the audience responded to. Like we fell in love with Gaten, and there were aspects, like Barb, we were already planning to deal with. It felt like there was a nice alignment between what we wanted to see and what other people wanted to see."

While season one was focused mainly on finding Will (Noah Schnapp) and defeating the demogorgon, Things 2 features several disparate stories that intertwine but all roads eventually lead to the ”shadow monster," a nickname given to a giant creature Will first meets in PTSD-like visions of the Upside Down. ”It's all connected to this singular threat, which is tied into this shape that Will sees in the sky," says Ross. By the end of the nine-hour season, fans can also expect new characters, like Bob (Sean Astin), a love interest for Joyce (Winona Ryder), and some pretty wow-worthy action sequences. Says Matt, ”Each episode is building on the last one. It gets much crazier than it ever got in season 1."

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HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I really hope they knock this out of the park. Season 1 is probably one of the best shows Netflix has put out and everything about Season 2 has been feeling just right.
 

Dalek

Member
Wait, "aspects of Barb" are being dealt with?

Wha?

I wonder about this too. She's been "missing" for over a year and Eleven saw her horrible dead body in the Upside Down. Unless there's some kind of Doppelganger involved I don't know what they have planned.
 

snap

Banned
I wonder about this too. She's been "missing" for over a year and Eleven saw her horrible dead body in the Upside Down. Unless there's some kind of Doppelganger involved I don't know what they have planned.

the fan backlash to her being knocked out probably meant they wrote her back in some way. like she's a ghost in the upside down or something stupid.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
season 1 is one of the best things I've ever watched on TV. This generation will talk about Stranger Things like previous generations talk about early Simpsons, Firefly, Arrested Development, X-Files, etc.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Wait--the real news here is the Family Matters cast reuniting that is noted on the cover.
 

AColdDay

Member
Why is Barb still a thing. Why is that character so popular.

A lot of us have been a Barb at some point in time. That scene where Barb is sitting alone by the pool while her friend had abandoned her for cooler friends really hits home. The fact that in a show with a lot of happy endings, her story ends up being so tragic makes her very unique.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Eleven's hair is blatant character assassination and I won't stand for it!
 
Oh man... Stranger Things is something that instantly brings a smile to my face. I absolutely loved every second of it. The best thing I've seen on TV in many many years.

ST2 can't come soon enough!
 
the fan backlash to her being knocked out probably meant they wrote her back in some way. like she's a ghost in the upside down or something stupid.

Yeah... I hope it's at least surprises me with how good it ends up being handled. I can't imagine this feeling anything but forced and unnatural though.
 

hydruxo

Member
Why is Barb still a thing. Why is that character so popular.

The meme status of Barb got inflated too much. She was in a small handful of scenes. They honestly need to move on.

The most they should do in S2 is have Nancy go to a memorial for Barb at the high school to pay her respects and leave it at that. Like, Barb's only real significance in S1 was to set up Nancy's arc to line up with the others.
 
Honestly, for EW covers, these are fucking masterpieces.

Can't wait for more Stranger Things. Not gonna read or watch anymore about it, just gonna go in mostly blind and hope for the best.
 
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