Stranger Things Star Gaten Matarazzo Returns To Hawkins For Season Two

It's 1983, and I’m 11 years old. I’ve stayed up past bedtime to sneak downstairs. Quietly, I switch on the TV and wait for the show to start...

This was my immediate impression of the Netflix megahit Stranger Things upon watching its first season last year. The eight-episode science fiction/coming of age/horror/small-town mystery mash-up certainly wasn't the first piece of pop culture to hinge on nostalgia for the heyday of the 1980s - indeed, you could say it owes a debt to JJ Abrams' uneven but heartfelt 2011 movie Super 8, which covered similar territory.

But the show, created by relative newcomers Matt and Ross Duffer, pulled off a truly nifty balancing act. Paying homage to the creative icons of the era (most notably Stephen King, Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, although film buffs could undoubtedly find nods to others), Stranger Things summoned enough '80s archetypes to inspire acid flashbacks for viewers who were actually there back in the day and generate envy in those who weren't. Those nostalgic qualities, however, were wrapped all the while in a compelling story of friendship and family ties as the best defence against the things that threaten you, whether they're schoolyard bullies or a malevolent beastie from another dimension.

Stranger Things didn't really have star power to draw upon - its biggest name was Winona Ryder, entering an overdue comeback phase in her career - and it wasn't hyped to such a degree that watching it felt like an obligation. Instead, it became the best kind of success story, the one that gains popularity and momentum through positive word of mouth from people who had perhaps decided to catch a single episode and found themselves cancelling their plans in order to binge the entire season.

It quickly seemed Stranger Things was everywhere. The young cast members playing the group of friends at the heart of the story became red-carpet regulars, with UK actor Millie Bobby Brown - a standout as the mysterious, super-powered girl known only as 'Eleven' - emerging as the most hyped of this clutch of breakout stars, signing with leading modelling agency IMG at the tender age of 12. Intense fandom spanned every facet of the show, from the origins of its synth-heavy score to the font used in its glowing red title logo. The fate of a supporting character, who ran afoul of the show's big, bad monster, spiralled into a viral phenomenon. Shrines were built, murals were dawbed, and a hashtag - #JusticeForBarb - continues to pinball around the Twittersphere.

And, of course, with that came the almost instant demand for more, more, more.

The Duffer Brothers, as they're billed in the credits of Stranger Things, admit that the show could lend itself to an anthology format, telling a different spooky story with a different setting and cast of characters under the Stranger Things banner each new season. And they say they briefly considered that approach. But when you've found a way to appeal to audiences, there's a tendency to want to stick with it.

"It's so hard to strike a chord with audiences that, when it happens, everyone is coming to you immediately to do it again and again," said Matt Duffer in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "They don't want to leave it alone. In our case, as soon as we started developing with Netflix, it was always supposed to be a multi-season arc."

While the new season may initially seem like more of the same - and that's not necessarily a bad thing, given how much the Duffers got right the first time around - it does move things forward (and in a few other cool directions) in interesting and absorbing ways.

One such way is acknowledging that the Stranger Things kids are indeed growing up. Admittedly it's only been a year since we last caught up with them but the difference in the show's young cast is noticeable, and some parts of the story reflect that.

"Even if I had the choice to freeze them in time, I wouldn't," said Matt Duffer in his Hollywood Reporter interview. "We don't want to be repeating ourselves. This show is going to naturally evolve and feel different year to year, and that to me is a good thing. I like that we're able to watch them grow."

The character of Dustin, played by Gaten Matarazzo, who's been acting since making his Broadway debut at the age of nine, illustrates this. A fan favourite in the first season for his irreverent one-liners and distinctive appearance (his front teeth were absent due to a disorder called cleidocranial dysplasia), Dustin in the new episodes has a gleaming set of gnashers he shows off at every opportunity. His voice also seems to have dropped an octave or two, and his interest in video games is seemingly matched by his interest in Max (Sadie Sink), the redheaded new girl in town.

Matarazzo downplays the notion of an "obvious crush", though, hinting that Dustin's interest in Max is motivated more by bringing her into his fold of friends as they battle new threats this time around.

"I've always felt Dustin is the glue of the group, and after everything that has happened and what everyone is going through, especially with what Will [played by Noah Schapp] is going through, I feel like he's trying to keep the gang as intact as possible," he said. "It's difficult, though, and I think he looks at Max as a way to help. She's this cool new character that adds a really great dynamic to the show in that way."

And so we have Stranger Things 2 - there's a big red numeral right there in the opening credits - which picks up one year on from the first season, with the characters recovering and in some cases struggling to move on from the amazing events 12 months earlier.

Will Byers disappearing into the dark dimension known as the Upside Down was the crux of the mystery last time. Having been rescued by a rag-tag group of heroes, including his best friends Dustin, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), his distraught but driven mother Joyce (Ryder) and grouchy, hard-drinking sheriff Hopper (David Harbour), Will is seemingly back on solid ground in the town of Hawkins, Indiana. And yet, he's still haunted by memories of the Upside Down, and what lurks within it.

The thing is, maybe it's not memories haunting him. Maybe whatever lurks within the Upside Down is making its way into our world.

The Duffers have reached deep into their bag of tricks once again with Stranger Things 2, not only mining the pop-culture goldmine of the 1980s for new riches (shoutouts to Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Aliens are plentiful and pleasingly integrated into the piece) but developing the existing characters in some smart, empathetic ways (Schapp's performance as Will is just terrific). And whatever self-conscious restraint may have influenced the storytelling during show's debut season has vanished in this return to Hawkins. The stakes are higher, the scale more epic, and in all likelihood, the reaction from fans may well surpass the levels of near-hysterical enthusiasm for Stranger Things' first instalments.