‘Stranger Things’ Season 2: Director Shawn Levy Confirms Return

'Stranger Things' director Shawn Levy confirms he will return to direct in season two and teases the possibility of a third season for the Netflix hit.

Stranger Things David Harbour Netflix

If the abundance of Stranger Things themed Halloween costumes last week were any indication, the hit sci-fi series created by The Duffer Brothers is as much a pop culture phenomenon as it was when the show first hit Netflix last summer. With fans clamoring for the second season, director Shawn Levy, who directed two episodes of the 80s-centric hits first season, confirmed to Collider that he will return to helm two episodes of the shows sophomore season and teased a possible third season.

Revealing that production on Stranger Things season two has already begun, Levy confirmed early reports that Netflix had informed both himself and the Duffer Brothers of the renewal before making the official announcement.

“We were given the wink-wink, ‘You guys should seriously start thinking about what you wanna have happen in Season 2’ before it was announced.”

For the first season, Levy assumed directing duties on the third and fourth episodes of Stranger Things from the Duffer Brothers, who directed the first two episodes themselves, to allow the writing duo to finish the scripts for the second half of the season. Levy confirmed that they will be following the same strategy for season two.

“Yes, we are a little superstitious so just like last year, they’re doing 1 and 2, I’m going in and doing 3 and 4. So the first four are gonna kick off exactly the same as last time… I am going to start prepping right around Thanksgiving and I’ll be filming my episodes through December and January.”

At the beginning of the month it was reported that Millie Bobby Brown would be returning as Eleven for the shows second season, which was not a certainty considering how the first season ended. However, Levy revealed that they had initially planned to make a surprise announcement themselves before the news of Brown’s return leaked.

“We are filming in Atlanta again. I feel like that’s how the Millie Brown thing leaked because someone saw her trick r treating in Atlanta. I was so bummed about that because Netflix had this really clever idea of taking a picture at our table read last week and posting it upside down, which is what we did. But then like two days before our clever idea got to debut, a bunch of places were reporting that Millie was gonna be a part of Season 2.”

Levy wouldn’t provide a release date for the shows second season, though he did confirm exactly how many episodes there will be in season two.

“That I can’t say. I do have a sense of it. It was promised when we announced that we were picked up for Season 2 and we gave those chapter headings, I believe it ended with ‘Coming in 2017’ and that much is true. You can do a little bit of math, we’re not magicians so there’s no way it launches in Spring since I just admitted we started filming today, and we’re doing nine.”

Early reports claimed the second season would take place one year after the events of season one. Though Levy would not confirm how much time has passed between each season, he did tease some new characters and hinted at the theme for next season.

“I’m not gonna say how much time has gone by. It is not the next day, I’ll say that. And there are several new characters who I think several of them are going to be new fan-favorites because they’re great, great new characters. But we are definitely sticking primarily with our core group, and what is different, how are they changed from the experience of last season… maybe ‘normal’ is never possible again.”

Levy elaborated on how that theme will relate to Will Byers and his family.

“Will Byers was in that Upside Down for a while. So Season 2 is about this determined desire to return to normalcy in Hawkins, in the Byers family, in that group of friends, and it’s the struggle to reclaim normalcy and maybe the impossibility of it.”

As for the future? Levy confirmed that he and The Duffer Brothers have already discussed plans for a potential third season of Stranger Things.

“We are not gonna be caught off guard and we don’t wanna be making stuff up like the day before we have to write it and make it, so we are definitely optimistic and we have started thinking ahead.”

Considering the second season of Stranger Things has just begun filming, it may be difficult to even fathom the idea of a third season already. However, considering the first season turned out to such a break-out hit and the anticipation for season two doesn’t seem to be waning any time soon, it may not be unreasonable to expect and prepare for a third season.

Stranger Things season two is scheduled to be released on Netflix in 2017.

Source: Collider

Sebastian Peris

Sebastian Peris

Canadian film buff, political junkie, comic book geek, and board game enthusiast.