'Stranger Things' is coming back for a Season 2

‘Stranger Things’ is coming back for a Season 2

By Meredith Woerner

Aug. 31, 2016 10 AM PT

Nostalgia junkies, you’re in luck. The Amblin-channeling, “Goonies”-for-TV series “Stranger Things” is officially returning to Netflix for a second season. Here’s everything we know.

Netflix has officially announced that its original series “Stranger Things” will return to the streaming service in 2017. Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer will both be returning to work on the second season for a total of nine episodes. And they even released a batch of befuddling episode titles.

Set in the 1980s, the series follows a gang of 12-year-olds who stumble upon an alternate reality, a super-powered girl, a government conspiracy and heaps and heaps of nostalgia.

No official plot synopsis was revealed with the Season 2 announcement but the Duffer brothers lightly teased what they had planned (should they get the green light for a second season) at the 2016 Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in July. Warning: Season 1 spoilers ahead.

“We kind of hint about where we might go at the end of the season,” Matt Duffer said. “Will was living in this upside-down other dimension for about a week. The repercussions of that can’t be good. And the inter-dimensional rift — at least how we left it — is still very much open. So that also can’t be good. So it’s exploring that. We want to retain the tone. But I think all our favorite sequels feel a little different. It’s not about just another monster comes and it’s a bigger, badder monster. We want it to feel a little bit different, maybe a little bit darker, but still have the sense of fun.”

The duo also promised a change in pace (possibly slowing things down), a return of most of the core characters (but they wouldn’t get into specifics), and potential explanations for the complicated conspiracy theories that were merely touched upon in Season 1.

But more importantly, Ross Duffer swore that there would be justice for the character Barb (played by actress Shannon Purser), who found viral fame after her character met an untimely death in the creepy alternate dimension.

“If there’s a Season 2,” Ross said at the 2016 TCA gathering, “there will be some Barb talk. Don’t worry. She will not be forgotten so easily.” Let’s hope he makes good on his word, for Barb.

According to the video release with the now iconic “Stranger Things” titles, the nine episodes in the second season are titled:

“Madmax”

“The Boy Who Came Back to Life”

“The Pumpkin Patch”

“The Palace”

“The Storm”

“The Pollywog”

“The Secret Cabin”

“The Brain”

“The Lost Brother”

What does “The Pumpkin Patch” mean? No idea. But there’s nothing like a batch of totally vague episode names to get the fan theories started.

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