Stranger Things Season 2 will haunt Netflix on Halloween
A reportedly $5M Super Bowl teaser trailer shows Eleven and co. are back on Oct. 31.
https://youtu.be/9Egf5U8xLo8
The weekend delivered good news for fans of Netflix's critically acclaimed '80s-style, horror nostalgia-fest, Stranger Things—Season 2 will return on October 31, 2017.
The Halloween release date was accompanied by a teaser trailer that aired during the Super Bowl—an event best described as an endless stream of needlessly expensive advertising loosely tied together by short excerpts of brawny men throwing a ball around a field. According to the New York Times, a 30-second ad like the one for Stranger Things Season 2 costs an eye-watering $5 million (£4 million) to air.
Still, it's money well spent for those eager to glean any information about the new season. There's a short excerpt of an Eggo Waffles advert, an upside-down Eleven, and plenty of creepy horror imagery. Plus, there's a shot of the boys dressed up in Ghostbusters outfits, complete with makeshift Proton Packs, for the ultimate in '80s nostalgia feels.
Little else is given away by the trailer, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer have already revealed that Season 2 is set in 1984, roughly a year after the first series. Matt Duffer also noted that Season 2 will be "a little darker and weirder." The YouTube description contains a few additional tidbits like: "A year after Will's return, everything seems back to normal... but a darkness lurks just beneath the surface, threatening all of Hawkins."
Last year, Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy—who is set to direct two episodes—told Collider that Season 2 will showcase characters coming to terms with the events of the first series.
"Will Byers was in that Upside Down for a while," he said. "So Season 2 is about this determined desire to return to normalcy in Hawkins, in the Byers family, in that group of friends, and it's the struggle to reclaim normalcy and maybe the impossibility of it."
In that interview, Levy added: "There are several new characters who I think several of them are going to be new fan favourites because they’re great, great new characters. But we are definitely sticking primarily with our core group, and what is different, how are they changed from the experience of last season… maybe ‘normal’ is never possible again."
For those not familiar with Stranger Things (for shame), the entirety of the first season is currently available to stream on Netflix. It's a firm favourite among Ars staff.
The show recently picked up a Screen Actors Guild award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series," during which actor David Harbour gave a heavily politicised acceptance speech accompanied by some perplexed facial expressions from co-star Winona Ryder.
