Eleven returns in Stranger Things 2 trailer, but Barb doesn't – and other things we learned from Comic Con
The first proper look at the new season from Netflix's unlikely hit of last summer was released at Comic-Con on Saturday. In 2016, Stranger Things became the streaming service's sleeper hit as viewers found themselves dragged into the mysterious goings-on in Hawkins, Indiana, in the early Eighties.
Here's what we've learned from the Stranger Things season two trailer:
1. It's definitely set in 1984
For a show awash in heady nostalgia, timing was everything for the maiden series of Stranger Things, and so it proves for its sequel. Netflix previously announced that the new season was set in "the fall of 1984", but the trailer shows that this will be backed up with some key references from pop culture at the time. Ghostbusters was released in June 1984, and by Halloween, when it's believed the season opens, dressing up in a taupe jumpsuit has become the costume of choice for Mike, Dustin and Lucas – who clearly believe their look isn't just pretend.
2. Will steps into the limelight
Actor Noah Schapp spent much of the first season in a weakened state in the Upside Down – the eerie, monster-filled parallel universe that threatens the safety of Hawkins. Thankfully, his character, Will, is now back in normality (almost) and season two, some fans predict, will belong to him.
One Reddit user suggests that Will's trauma – the trailer suggests that he continues to find himself in the Upside Down and acts as a kind of portal for those that lurk within – will see Schapp singled out for recognition in season two, much like Eleven actress Millie Bobby Brown was after Stranger Things first aired.
Will's presence will also change that of his mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder) and brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), who now have to deal with what his time in the Upside Down has done to the youngest member of the Byers family.
3. Eleven returns – but possibly not in the way we want her to
"Sometimes I feel like I still see her": for those wondering if Stranger Things's second season would see a return of the enigmatic Eleven, the first trailer holds some promise. The final scenes of the first season hinted that the psychokinetic wunderkind may not have vanished into the ether forever, namely due to the Eggos Jim Hopper, the bereft chief of Hawkins Police, left out for her in the woods.
While she's certainly not back in school (judging by the empty chair next to Mike's desk in the classroom), Brown is set to continue her breakthrough role from the Upside Down, possibly communicating with Will and Mike as she attempts to break through into normality. The blink-and-you'll-miss-it nosebleed scene suggests she's still flexing those psychokinetic muscles, too.
4. There may well be a Nancy-Steve-Jonathan love triangle
Over the course of season one, Mike's sister Nancy developed from an archetypal teenager into a quietly fierce young woman. The teenage rebellion that got her friend Barb into such trouble continues apace – the trailer shows more drinking and from red cups, to boot – but we also see tensions arise between Nancy and Steve, her high school sweetheart that she wound up cosily opening Christmas presents with at the end of season one, and Jonathan. Many fans were hopeful that Nancy would ditch the jock for the nerd last time around, but it never happened. Might it in season two?
5. Barb is definitely not coming back
Sorry, Barb fans, but the fan favourite will not be returning from the Upside Down. This wasn't addressed in the trailer (although we didn't see her, which suggests she's still very much absent), but in the panel that accompanied the trailer's release at Comic Con. Sharon Purser, the actress who played Nancy's sardonic best friend, was the first person to ask a question, and that question was: "Is Barb coming back?" The answer? A definitive no. "The crowd went crazy", confirmed one Reddit user who was there.
Stranger Things returns to Netflix on October 27
Stranger Things: all the hidden (and not-so-hidden) references
