The Duffer Brothers Say Some of Your STRANGER THINGS Season 2 Theories Are "Very Close" To Being Correct
When 2016 comes to an end, Stranger Things is going to be at or near the top of the country's biggest pop culture fascinations of the year. The combination of '80s nostalgia with addicting, thrilling, and fun storytelling made the Netflix series a mega-success, and while I think we'd all be better off if we lowered our expectations a bit in regard to future episodes, the show's creators and showrunners The Duffer Brothers are now talking a bit about season 2 in a new interview with THR.
Matt: Even way back when we pitched to Netflix the first season, we talked about where it would potentially go. They understood the potential. Season one does almost feel like a big movie that comes to a sort of ending. A lot of that was based on the character of Will and the repercussions of him being in this upside down world for a week. Exploring that would be the second season. Once we got into the room for season two, we started expanding our mythology. We never got boxed in, because we’re dealing with an alternate dimension. It feels like the possibilities are limitless. We’re building up the mythology in a way that we know now where we want the story and these characters to end. We have more of a game plan now than we did two years ago.
They also touched on the episode titles as revealed in the teaser trailer video:
Ross: That was all our idea, so if it blows up in our faces …
Matt: Netflix had another teaser, but it was about going back to stuff that had happened already. I thought it wasn’t exciting enough, and we wanted to provide some hint of where we were going in season two without giving anything away. I do think some of the titles will change. There were titles we didn’t want to put on there because we felt like it would give too much away. The whole season was already broken when we did this.
Ross: So we did have a lot that we could tease.
Matt: Even if they aren't the final chapter titles, everything in that teaser is major. But they’re ambiguous enough that no one is going to be able to figure it out. Some of the fan theories online are amazing. Most are wrong, but I’ve read a few that are right or very close. Is it Reddit? Some of those people have figured stuff out based off of the chapter titles.
Ross: Some of these theories are elaborate and smart. They're not crap. I love reading this stuff.
Matt: But we don’t go on Reddit.
Ross: No, people send us the stuff. I know I would never get out if I went in there.
So it turns out some of those fan theories you've read (or heck, maybe you originated them) are either correct or very close to being correct. I suppose that's to be expected when you have a show largely written by just two guys and then having it dissected, analyzed, and theorized about by millions of people — at that point it's a numbers game, and somebody's bound to hit on the same story ideas they do.
Now we just have to wait until next summer to find out what happens.