- She's our friend,
and she's crazy,
crazy about an all new Nerdist News.
(rhythmic electronic music)
Right?
Upside Down fans, get excited,
because Eleven and the gang are back,
and Entertainment Weekly has got an exclusive look
at the returning cast on their new cover,
but beyond the stunning front page portrait,
EW also got a whole slew of scoops on season two,
and they got them straight from the Duffer's mouths.
Yes, the article features quotes from series creators
and the guys who always win '80s trivia night
at your local bar,
Matt and Ross Duffer,
and they have spilled some tantalizing plot details
that we are gonna break down right now.
So right off the bat,
the article confirms something we already kind of knew.
The series opens on Halloween 1984
with the boys in costume as the Ghostbusters.
Now in our last Stranger Things breakdown,
we tried to guess who the fourth Buster
hidden in the Superbowl spot was.
We thought it might be new cast member Max,
but I can't believe I'm going to say this,
we were wrong.
(audience yelling)
Will is officially back as the fourth member
of the AV club crew.
Now, Will joining the gang for Halloween
does raise some interesting questions.
As we saw in the Superbowl spot,
he's back in the research facility on October 30th,
the night before Halloween,
being examined by Paul Reiser's character,
who we now know from the article
will be called Dr. Owens.
So if Will is in the lab one night
and out trick or treating with his friends the next,
this suggest that these checkups
are a somewhat regular occurrence,
kind of like a yearly physical,
but for someone who got trapped
in an alternate dimension for a few weeks,
and indeed, it seems like young Mr. Byers
is in need of a little bit of medical expertise
as the Duffers confirm he will be suffering
from a form of posttraumatic stress disorder
as the season opens.
"He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down,"
says brother Matt.
"The question is whether they're real or not."
Well, we're gonna go ahead and guess
they'll eventually turn out to be real
because no matter how much the Duffers
love their '80s nostalgia,
we doubt they'll ever go full Dallas with an,
"It was all a dream," angle.
Plus, we've already gotten a small glimpse
of his visions coming true in the Superbowl spot
where this drawing of a giant tentacled spider beast
eventually jumps off the page
and shows up right outside the door.
And speaking of monsters,
the Duffers have promised all kinds
of monsters in season two,
and not just the kinds you'd expect.
Yes, they confirmed the rift between our world
and the Upside Down is still open,
and yes, we will see some new beasties
slither their way out,
but we'll also have some new human villains in the mix.
In addition to Dr. Owens,
who we are all pretty suspicious about,
he is a government agent played by Paul Reiser.
How could we not be?
The kids will have an adversary their own age.
We've known for a while that the gang
will make friends with Max,
a new girl in town.
What we didn't know until this article
was that she'll have a brother named Billy,
and he won't be quite so eager to join their D&D circle.
In speaking about the inspiration for Billy,
the Duffers said, "Stephen King always has
"really great human villains.
"The evil in the real world is often as bad
"or worse than the supernatural evil,
"so we wanted to introduce a character like that."
Now in the King stories they're referencing,
it's not uncommon for the human threat
to eventually become influenced by
or even make alliances with the supernatural threat.
Classic cases of this include Jack Torrance in The Shining
and Harold Lauder in The Stand.
This leads us to wonder if Billy will eventually become
an unwitting agent of the Upside Down.
Do demogorgons make strategic alliances?
I don't see why not,
and I guess we'll find out,
but not all alliances with evil need
to be quite so distressing.
In the article, star Gaten Matarazzo says
his character Dustin will get a new Polliwog like pet.
"It's a little creature I get to bond with,"
says Matarazzo.
"It's obviously not from this planet
"or from this dimension."
Aw, that sounds so maybe, possibly cute and disastrous.
A new little Upside Down baby for Dustin to love,
surely nothing could go wrong there,
except let us not forget
that 1984 was also the year of Gremlins.
We could also see the new pet
as a setup for an homage to that horror comedy classic.
Just to be safe, Dustin,
maybe be careful about what you feed that thing,
but that is just scratching the surface, you guys.
If you want to know even more
about what's to come in Stranger Things season two,
we recommend that you pick up this week's issue
of Entertainment Weekly.
♫ Duff Tails
♫ Woah
(singing)
- Ross Duffer.
♫ Duff tails
(audience cheering and clapping)
- Where's your brother Matt?
- Oh, Matt couldn't be here today.
He's on a very important research assignment.
He's digging through the garbage cans
outside of Steven Spielberg's house.
- Okay, great.
Um, so, what do you want?
- Well, I wanted to show you the character designs
for Dustin's new pet.
We just got the puppet back from Germ Henson Studios.
- Wait, don't you mean Jim Henson Studios?
- No, Germ Henson, the famous Swedish puppeteer.
Who's Jim Henson?
Anyways, get ready to meet Dustin's new friend, Fizmo.
Hello, Jess, it's me, Fizmo.
Don't feed me candy.
- What, we're just working the Groblins
into random videos now?
- I wrote these puppets off on my taxes, Jess,
and now I'm getting audited.
If I don't convince the IRS they were there for work,
I'm gonna go to jail.
I mean, I'm Fizmo.
Stuff's chill.
- Mkay, well, let us know what you guys think
about these new stranger developments
for Stranger Things season two.
What is Paul Reiser doing to Will inside that lab,
and most importantly, should I report
my coworkers for tax fraud?
Let's discuss.
Answer, yes.
Let's discuss.
Bowser, I swear to God,
get that (beeping) thing away from me.
- Sorry.
(quick electronic music)