The mystery of “Stranger Things” star Winona Ryder’s bizarre facial expressions at this year’s SAG Awards may still remain unsolved (well, mostly, anyway), but plot details for the second season of the Netflix series are being revealed by the show’s creators and cast members.
With production of the second season now underway, Ryder, David Harbour and series creators the Duffer Brothers offered insight on what to expect upon the show’s return to EW.com.
So what’s in store? First off, the season will pick up almost a year after the events of the first run, perhaps appropriately on Halloween.
While Will Byers has emerged from the mysterious realm of the Upside-Down, it seems that, while you can take the boy out of the Upside-Down, it might not be so easy to take the Upside-Down out of the boy.
“He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down — the question is whether they’re real or not,” series co-creator Matt Duffer said. “So it seems like he’s having some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Will’s mother Joyce (played by Ryder), meanwhile, has taken up with a former high-school classmate named Bob (played by “The Goonies” alum Sean Astin), and attempting to bring some sense of normalcy to her distraught family, according to Ryder.
“She’s trying to mask a lot,” Ryder offered. “I think she’s made this choice with Bob because she wants a good father figure in her sons’ lives.”
Lawman Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is undergoing his own struggles, as he attempts to keep the disappearance of Barb and other Season 1 events under wraps for the good of Joyce and others.
“It kind of falls on Hopper to be the voice of authority to say, ‘This did happen and this didn’t happen,’” Harbour revealed. “He’s struggling with the compromise that takes him to, having to lie and cover things up.”
Nancy and Mike Wheeler, meanwhile, “are both the most screwed-up,” according to co-creator Ross Duffer, because of the demises — or so it seems, anyway — of Nancy’s friend Barb and Mike’s mysterious visitor, Eleven.
“They’re both grappling with that, and we see the effects,” Duffer added.