Halloween is on the horizon, and along with the arrival of spooky tricks and sweet treats is the second season of "Stranger Things." Last year, the third most watch Netflix original series pulled in at least 14 million viewers in its first 35 days as viewers obsessed over its 1980s setting, horror-inducing themes and talented young actors.
In fact, during the Stranger Things off-season, the young cast—including Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Milly Bobby Brown as Eleven—remained in the celebrity spotlight and, along with conducting a number of interviews, worked on other major Hollywood projects.
The second season of Stranger Things will be released just four days before Halloween continuing the journey to the Upside Down world.
Altogether, the young cast has been nominated for over fifteen awards within the past year, such as the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance.
Individually, McLaughlin acted in the mini-series "The New Edition Story," which came out in January 2017, and Matarazzo has appeared on multiple talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live! and worked alongside Katy Perry in her "Swish Swish" music video. Schnapp also appeared in a lead role in a music video, acting in Panic! At The Disco's video for the song, "L.A. Devotee."
Both Brown and Wolfhard have seemed to be the most occupied, with Brown modelling for Calvin Klein clothing brand and Wolfhard acting in the critically acclaimed new film, "IT."
Though the group had ventured off to do their own individual work, they all came back together to promote Stranger Things 2 in September 2017 by posing for Entertainment Weekly.
Since they couldn’t reveal too much, Entertainment Weekly took their questions to the few adults of the show to get the details of the upcoming season. Winona Ryder playing Joyce Byers, David Harbour playing Officer Jim Hopper and Sean Astin, who will play a new character in the second season, revealed that along with new characters, returning characters have greatly progressed in the time the audience has missed.
According to the Netflix trailer posted on YouTube, the series will pick up in the year 1984 with Will Byers suffering from flashbacks and Lord knows what else after having returned from the alternate dimension that exists parallel to the human world and the Demogorgon's lair, known as the Upside Down a year prior.
While last season focused on the gang of young boys and one kickass, telekinetic girl defeating the Demogorgon and rescuing Will, this season seems to be centered around why Will is still being haunted by the Upside Down, what happened to Eleven and the discovery of an even more terrifying monster.
After Eleven's defeat of the Demogorgon followed by her disappearance, many wondered if the actress, Millie Bobby Brown, would return to the show. The second season's trailer confirms her return to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
The trailer, packed with more 80s references - Ghostbusters costumes and old-fashioned video games - has received a considerable amount of positive reviews from fans and critics alike. The main question many have, as with any sequel, is how it will compare to the original.
After watching the trailer several times, I'm not worried as I still feel goosebumps rise every time I see the new twists and turns coming this season. I can only hope the directors, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, have future seasons planned, and they remain as bone-chilling as their first ones.
For now, Stranger Things will pick back up with its second season on Friday, Oct. 27 - just in time for Halloween. I recommend you catch up quick before you're too far behind on all of the thrills, and inadvertently subject yourself to spoilers. To avoid that exact situation, you'll find me drinking tea from my "mouth breather" mug and cuddled with a blanket, giddy with strange excitement.
