STRANGER THINGS: Shawn Levy Will Be Back to Direct in Season 2 and Teases Season 3
It may be hard to think about in the midst of all of this election insanity, but assuming the world doesn't plummet into complete chaos and our country remains standing in the coming months, we'll still have entertainment to distract us from the craziness of real world events. One of the pieces of entertainment we're looking forward to the most is season 2 of Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers' Netflix show that took the pop culture world by storm this summer with its surprisingly fantastic first season. We've written a lot about what we know about the show so far (including the new additions of Sean Astin and Paul Reiser), but now producer and director Shawn Levy has a bit more to say about it in a new interview with Collider.
Levy directed the third and fourth episodes of season one because the Duffers needed more time to finish writing the back half of the season, and according to him, they're going to keep that directing pattern alive...at least for the first four episodes of season 2:
“Yes, we are a little superstitious so just like last year, they’re doing 1 and 2, I’m going in and doing 3 and 4. So the first four are gonna kick off exactly the same as last time… I am going to start prepping right around Thanksgiving and I’ll be filming my episodes through December and January.”
He said production on season 2 officially began yesterday, November 7th, but he wouldn't commit to exactly how much time has passed in the show since season 1 ended:
“I’m not gonna say how much time has gone by. It is not the next day, I’ll say that. And there are several new characters who I think several of them are going to be new fan-favorites 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. Will Byers was in that Upside Down for a while. 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.”
As for season 3, Levy didn't give any real specifics (obviously), but he did mention that they were already planning ahead and are hopeful about a renewal:
“We are not gonna be caught off guard and we don’t wanna be making stuff up like the day before we have to write it and make it, so we are definitely optimistic and we have started thinking ahead.”
While he wouldn't say exactly when we could expect to see the show return to Netflix other than the vague "2017" release date promised in the teaser trailer, he reminded us that there are going to be nine episodes in season 2, which is one more than season 1, so it's possible they'll premiere slightly later next year than they did this year. Either way, we can't wait to see what they all come up with when Stranger Things comes back.
