Stranger Things season 2 confirmed: new teaser, characters, location, and James Cameron influences

In news that shouldn't surprise anyone, Stranger Things has just been renewed for a second season which is set to debut on Netflix next year. The Stranger Things season 2 announcement was accompanied by a nifty teaser trailer, which you can watch below...

While that teaser is understandably devoid of new footage it does reveal what looks to be the episode titles for season two, which will run slightly longer than season one with nine episodes instead of eight; Madmax, The Boy Who Came Back to Life, The Pumpkin Patch, The Palace, The Storm, The Pollywog, The Secret Cabin, The Brain, and The Lost Brother. Make of that what you will...

The Duffer Brothers (who created the show) also told Entertainment Weekly that season two will have four new characters, while citing director James Cameron as an influence; "I know movie sequels get a lot of s—, but the ones we look up to aspire to pivot and do something different", Matt explained. "There’s Temple of Doom, Aliens, Terminator 2. I guess a lot of this is James Cameron. But he’s brilliant. And I think one of the reasons his sequels are as successful as they are is he makes them feel very different without losing what we loved about the original. So I think we kinda looked to him and what he does and tried to capture a little bit of the magic of his work".

Finally, while the show will definitely venture out of Hawkins early on, we will be returning to Things' alternate dimension; "We obviously have this gate to another dimension, which is still very much open in the town of Hawkins", Ross noted. "And a lot of questions there in terms of, if the Monster is dead, was it a singular monster? What else could be out there? We really don’t go in there much until they go in to find Will at the end. So we’ve opened up this doorway, and to us it’s exciting to talk about, like, what else is behind there? There’s a lot more mystery there to be solved".

Something tells me those answers will lead to more questions. We'll find out when season 2 of Stranger Things debuts in 2017.

Images: Netflix

Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.