For those who binged their way through the first season, one of the biggest remaining mysteries was whether the acclaimed show created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer would indeed get a second season. Much to the delight of sci-fi fans of all kinds, that question has been answered, with a second season scheduled to premiere October 27, 2017 — near Halloween, of course.
So what do we know about the show’s impending return? Here are all the details so far.
Eleven’s escape
The first clip from the second season of Stranger Things debuted during London’s MCM Comic Con in October 2017 and soon found its way online. Introduced by Eleven herself, actress Millie Bobby Brown, the clip reveals how her character escapes from the terrifying alternate dimension known as the Upside Down.
For anyone looking to avoid spoilers, you might want to skip the clip — but for everyone else, go ahead and press “play.”
The final trailer
The marketing campaign for season 2 of Stranger Things capped off its trailer debuts on October 13 — Friday the 13th, to be exact — with one final preview of what’s in store for the residents of Hawkins.
The last full-length trailer for the season just might be the most epic, thrilling peek we’ve had so far at season 2, and offers up just the right amount of fresh footage, scares, and moments that are likely to prompt some cheering from Stranger Things fans. Well played, Netflix.
The teaser before the trailer
Almost too perfectly, Friday the 13th falls two weeks before the Stranger Things season 2 premiere, making it the perfect day to release a new trailer. Netflix announced in a teaser video on Thursday, October 12, that it planned to do just that. The teaser offers a taste of what the trailer reveals as it shows new glimpses at the upcoming season — 13 of them, to be exact.
Among the scenes are glimpses of Will (Noah Schnapp) at a doctor’s office, a masked group of teens, creepy corridors, a dark tunnel, and a door chain being moved by an unseen force. The puzzle pieces are all eerie interesting, but, of course, they don’t give us a full picture.
Episode titles, reprise
In August 2017, Netflix released a video which revealed episode titles for the nine-episode second season of Stranger Things. Even then, though, the Duffers warned that the titles were subject to change. As it happens, those titles were indeed subjected to wholesale change, with none of the original titles remaining the same (though one did get moved up). On October 9, the official Stranger Things Twitter account shared a video with the updated episode titles (viewable below).
According to Consequence of Sound, the episodes are called (in order):
- Dragon’s Lair
- Trick or Treat Freak
- The Pollywog
- Will the Wise
- Dig Dug
- The Spy
Episodes seven, eight, and nine are not titled — they’re listed together in the video, along with a creepy monster hand slicing its way through the page. The titles themselves don’t reveal too much, though both Dragon’s Lair and Dig Dug are famous ’80s arcade games (which the boys will likely play at the Palace arcade), and ‘Will the Wise’ is the name of Will Byers’ Dungeons & Dragons character from season 1. It seems the second season will feature a renewed focus on gaming, which suits us just fine.
1984 was a weird year
A new teaser trailer for season 2 helps to ground the events of Stranger Things in reality … sort of, anyway. The trailer (viewable below) opens with a grainy news report on Will Byers’ (Noah Schnapp) season 1 disappearance (set in 1983), followed by the narrator listing off notable events that took place during 1984 (when season 2 takes place).
The teaser (aptly titled 1984) seems to imply that the rift to the “upside down” — opened by Eleven in season 1 — is also responsible for the USSR’s boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the introduction of “New Coke,” and a few other major happenings. We don’t get any new information about season 2, but it’s a fun play on the nostalgia that helps power Stranger Things.
Stranger Things: The Game
In early October 2017, Netflix launched a free-to-play Stranger Things mobile game (aptly titled Stranger Things: The Game), a top-down action RPG in the vein of the old Legend of Zelda games.
Players take control of the show’s main characters — this includes Chief Hopper, Nancy Byers, and the group of kids that so enchanted audiences during season 1 — and explore many iconic Hawkins locales, including the forest and the government laboratory, solving puzzles and collecting waffles (yep) along the way. Reviews thus far have been overwhelmingly positive, and developer BonusXP promises there are some surprises and new areas in store for fans of the series.
