The second season of the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things, marketed as Stranger Things 2, was released worldwide on the streaming service Netflix on October 27, 2017. The series was created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as executive producers along with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen and Iain Paterson.
The principal cast for the season includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Cara Buono, Sean Astin, and Paul Reiser, while the recurring cast includes Brett Gelman, Linnea Berthelsen, Matthew Modine, and Priah Ferguson. The season received critical acclaim for its acting, characters, story, production values, and darker tone compared to the previous season. The season received 12 nominations at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, and won for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One-Hour).
Premise In the fall of 1984, a year after Will Byers's disappearance and eventual discovery, the town of Hawkins, Indiana, once again find itself targeted by the Upside Down. A mysterious plague begins to consume pumpkin patches around town during Halloween season. Will perceives a large and many-armed shadow entity, which the party eventually names the "Mind Flayer", that is able to possess him after an attack. Meanwhile, the larger group, including Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, and Dustin Henderson, encounter "Demogorgon dogs" or "Demodogs" which terrorize the citizens of Hawkins. Will's family and friends, alongside Jim Hopper, Mike's sister Nancy and her boyfriend Steve Harrington, Californian newcomer Max Mayfield, and a missing Eleven, must join forces to contain the threat.
Cast and characters
Main Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers David Harbour as Jim Hopper Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven / Jane Ives / Jane Hopper Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair Noah Schnapp as Will Byers Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers Joe Keery as Steve Harrington Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler Sean Astin as Bob Newby Paul Reiser as Sam Owens Recurring Linnea Berthelsen as Kali / Eight Joe Chrest as Ted Wheeler Catherine Curtin as Claudia Henderson Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman Karen Ceesay as Sue Sinclair Arnell Powell as Charles Sinclair Jennifer Marshall as Susan Hargrove Will Chase as Neil Hargrove Tinsley and Anniston Price as Holly Wheeler Cynthia Barrett as Marsha Holland Chester Rushing as Tommy H Kai L. Greene as Funshine Randy Havens as Scott Clarke Susan Shalhoub Larkin as Florence James Landry Hébert as Axel Anna Jacoby-Heron as Dottie Gabrielle Maiden as Mic Rob Morgan as Officer Powell John Paul Reynolds as Officer Callahan Chelsea Talmadge as Carol Madelyn Cline as Tina Abigail Cowen as Vicki Matty Cardarople as Keith Tony Vaughn as Principal Coleman Charles Lawlor as Mr. Melvald Aaron Muñoz as Mr. Holland Aimee Mullins as Terry Ives Amy Seimetz as Becky Ives Pruitt Taylor Vince as Ray Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner
Episodes
Production Development With the critical and viewership success of Stranger Things after its first season's release in July 2016, speculation on a possible second season was raised. The Duffer Brothers initially intended for Stranger Things to either be a standalone miniseries or an anthology series. They also considered the possibility of setting a potential second season (which they referred to as a "sequel") in the early 1990s and featuring an older version of the characters, along with all-new characters, who are drawn back to Hawkins after supernatural events begin occurring again.
However, following the release of the first season, they realized that the likability of the characters – especially the children – was key to the series' success, and they decided to set the second season in 1984 and focus on the same characters. By the end of July, the Duffer Brothers had outlined a plan for such a season if it was green-lit, and Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings said in early August that the company "would be dumb not to" renew Stranger Things for a second season. On August 31, 2016, Netflix announced it had renewed Stranger Things for a second season of nine episodes, to be released in 2017. The Duffer Brothers revealed that the series had been renewed for a second season before the first was released. Regarding the decision to wait more than a month after the first season was released to announce the renewal, Matt Duffer said, "it actually ended up working because it had built up to this fever pitch. I guess that's what [Netflix] were intending to do all the time."
Writing The success of the first season led the Duffers to let their writers' room propose any idea they could come up with out of desperation for ways to expand the show. However, Ross Duffer stated in the WGFestival 2022 that thanks to the writers proposing more ideas than necessary, they were forced to drop some. Several of these unused ideas were later deferred to the fifth and final season. The Duffer Brothers wrote the second season to make the combined first and second season feel like a complete work, but set elements in place to go forward with additional seasons if they were green-lit. While most of the story for the second season had been decided before the first season aired, the Duffer Brothers took in the audience reactions from the first season to adjust some of the details within the second season. They knew they would not have the same element of audience surprise as when the series aired anew and were aware fans wanted to see certain elements, but Ross said "...the point is not to give everyone what they think they want. Because I don't think they really know what they want."
The Duffer Brothers felt that the second season should be treated more like a sequel rather than a continuation, and thus opted to call the second Stranger Things 2. This approach had some trepidation from Netflix, since the company felt movie sequels typically have a bad reputation, but the Duffer Brothers pointed out that there had been many successful sequels that surpassed the original film, and felt confident with this name. Despite revealing episode titles for the season in the announcement teaser in order "to provide some hint of where we were going in season two without giving anything away," Matt Duffer stated that some of the titles would change since there were some things "we didn't want to put on there because we felt like it would give too much away," and because "people are smart on the fucking internet" with fan-created "videos analyzing the chapter titles... right on a lot" of how the titles related to the plot of the season. In early October 2017, the Duffer Brothers revealed the final titles for the first six episodes of the season.
Casting In October 2016, it was announced that Schnapp and Keery had been promoted to the main cast for the second season, after each recurring in the first season, and that Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery would join the main cast as Max and Billy, respectively. In order to get the role, Sink told to the crew while auditioning that she knew about rollerblading and skateboarding; Sink actually knew how to do the latter but not the former, reflecting years later during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live that the two things weren't quite the same as she thought. Ryder, Harbour, Wolfhard, Brown, Matarazzo, McLaughlin, Dyer and Heaton also return for the season. Sean Astin as Bob Newby and Paul Reiser as Sam Owens are also part of the main cast in the season. For Owens, The Duffer Brothers had referred to the character in their pitch to Netflix for the season as "Paul Reiser", and specifically alluded to Reiser's character Carter J. Burke in Aliens, with Ross referencing James Cameron's casting choice for that film, saying, "[Cameron] thought people would inherently trust [Reiser] and it would be a twist". Reiser's son was a fan of Stranger Things, and gave his father an early appreciation of the series so that when the production called his agent about the role, Reiser was excited for the part. Joining them in recurring roles are Linnea Berthelsen as Kali / Eight and Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman.
Filming In the first week of November 2016, table reads for the season started. The season was officially confirmed to be in production on November 4, 2016, in a social media post. It was accompanied by a photo of some of the cast members at a table read.
Filming of the season started on November 7, 2016. On November 14, 2016, photos of the cast on set in Atlanta were published. Seen in the photos were the main cast of kids and teens from the previous season, minus Millie Bobby Brown and Natalia Dyer, though a body double for Nancy appeared to be present. Chelsea Talmadge, who portrays the recurring character Carol, was also present. None of the new cast members were spotted, but the names Max and Billy were seen on the cast trailers, implying that newcomers Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery were present that day.
By early April 2017, the final two episodes had commenced filming, shooting scenes in Woodland, Georgia seen previously in season 1. Filming for the season officially wrapped on June 3, 2017.
Music
The soundtrack album for the second season was released digitally on October 20, 2017, via Lakeshore and Invada Records. The soundtrack was composed by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the electronic band Survive. On the soundtrack's composition, Dixon and Stein together said that the score for the season introduces "new styles of composition, while still revisiting old themes when appropriate ... We've created new elements that are necessary to support the story, but still want to remain true to the sound of Season 1." The first track from the soundtrack, "Walkin' in Hawkins", was released on October 12.
As was customary with the first season, the second season utilized period music primarily from the 1980s to evoke a sense of nostalgia amongst viewers while further solidifying the story's setting. In all, over fifty pieces of music were used for Stranger Things 2, with release dates spanning from 1936 all the way until 1985.
Release The second season, which consisted of nine one-hour-long episodes, was released worldwide on Netflix on October 27, 2017, in Ultra HD 4K and HDR.
Marketing A teaser for the second season, which also announced the release date, aired during Super Bowl LI.
Beyond Stranger Things
With the release of the second season of the series, Netflix also released Beyond Stranger Things, an aftershow hosted by Jim Rash. The guests of the aftershow are composed of cast and crew from the series, including the Duffer Brothers and the series' stars, to discuss the development and behind-the-scenes production of the series and its larger mythology. Unlike previous after-shows created by Embassy Row, such as Talking Dead and Talking Bad, Beyond Stranger Things is intended to be watched after a screening of the entire current season.
Home media The second season was released on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack exclusively to Target retailers on November 6, 2018, in vintage CBS-FOX VHS-inspired packaging.
Reception Audience viewership Nielsen ratings Nielsen ratings records viewership data for those who viewed the series on a TV set, the data does not account for mobile, tablet or PC devices.