After inspiring countless memes and spoofs---not to mention several finale-obsessed back-and-forths---it was all but a given that Netflix's eight-episode summer smash *Stranger Things *would return. But for the last few months, the network and show creators Matt and Ross Duffer haven't revealed much about the series' fate (not surprising, considering they know a thing or two about the power of staying quiet). This morning, though, Netflix announced that both the show and the Duffers will return with a nine-episode second season, to air in 2017. Yes, we're excited too, though there was something lovely about the thought that it would be one perfect season.
There's no official word on which of the series' cast members---including Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown---will return, though the Duffers indicated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the new season will follow the *Stranger *crew to 1984, and that it will take place partly outside of the show's Hawkins, Indiana setting (the Upside Down will be involved, too). Oh, and as for the fate of a certain telekinetic kiddo? “We don’t know about Eleven,” Ross Duffer tells EW. “We leave that up in the air.”
To make things even *more *obtuse, the very cryptic teaser---which you can watch above---features the familiar *Stranger Things *score, along with the following clues:
"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. In the fall of 1984...the adventure continues."
Are these brand-new *Stranger *characters? Secret government-project code names? Obscure, Reagan-era Vestron Video releases to which the Duffers will be paying homage? We'll find out when *Stranger Things *turns things upside-down once again next year.
