“Stranger Things” creators dish on cast of season 2
The second season of “Stranger Things” cannot arrive on Netflix soon enough for the millions of fans clamoring for more adventures from their favorite residents of Hawkins, Indiana. Until then, the Duffer Brothers are here to tease some of the show’s upcoming surprises.
Show creators Matt and Ross Duffer, as well as executive producers Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, spoke with ET’s Deidre Behar at the Producers Guild Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, where they opened up -- as much as they could -- about the hotly anticipated second season.
First off, some fresh blood is coming to the small, Midwestern hamlet in the form of “Lord of the Rings’” Sean Astin, who is set to play a newcomer named Bob Newby.
While they couldn’t reveal much about Astin’s character -- outside of the fact that he works at Radio Shack -- they did confirm the news that he’d be playing the boyfriend of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder).
However, the group had nothing but praise for Astin’s performance and what he brings to the Stranger Things dynamic.
“Sean Astin is a force. He’s gonna surprise,” Ross marveled. “He’s just an incredible actor and he blows us away every day on set.”
“Bob is new to our weird Hawkins group, but he’s immediately memorable and I think people are going to be very surprised by where that takes them this year,” Shawn added.
Another iconic star who’s signed on for the new season is Paul Reiser, who was actually a dream get for the creators.
“I’ve been dreaming of Paul Reiser for a while and we got him in there!” Ross exclaimed.
“The character [he plays] was named Paul Reiser for a long time and we were just like, ‘We should just [reach out]. We should just see if he wants to do it,’” Matt recounted. “And he did want to do it because his kid liked it! He didn’t understand the show but his kid explained it.”
With “Stranger Things” pulling so endearingly from 1980s horror flicks, Reiser’s role in the 1986 scary movie classic “Aliens” makes him a perfect addition to the cast.
The show’s massive popularity and recent slew of awards and nominations means “Stranger Things” could likely cast any super-famous A-lister they’d like. However, the producers admitted that they are trying to stay away from doing anything that takes away from the characters themselves.
“To be honest, part of the fun of the show is we want people to discover these characters so we kind of actually resist big stunty name casting because we want people to meet the character as they are and be surprised by them,” Shawn explained.
The group also addressed recent off-screen romance rumors between Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton -- who play Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers on the hit show.
While Shawn said the producers had “no comment” regarding the rumors, he went on to delicately add, “If it was to be true and I knew it to be true, I might think they were a cute couple. Is that vague enough that I’m not gonna get in trouble?”
Finally, the Duffer Bros. would be remiss if they didn’t give fans a hint at how the second season is going to deal with the loss of Barb Holland (Shannon Purser).
“Barb will not be forgotten in season two, I will say that much. There will be a lot of talk about Barb,” Ross explained, before quickly clarifying, “She is still dead, though.”
While no official release date has yet been announced, fans can expect season two of “Stranger Things” to premiere later this year. For more on the ever-growing excitement surrounding the long-awaited new episodes, check out the video below.