Here Are The Best 'Stranger Things' Fan Theories Keeping Us Hungry For Season 2

[Spoiler Alert, you have been warned]

Netflix be praised! Of all the amazing shows turned out by the gods of online streaming, Stranger Things has got to be its greatest masterpiece (sorry House of Cards).

Since cannonballing season one in one sitting (and then watching it a couple more times, because: obsession) fans of the juggernaut hit show have been left with a burning hunger for answers. Will Winona stay on the Stranger Things gravy train? Have Dustin's teeth grown in? Is Will still puking death slugs? Is Eleven alive? Is Barb alive? Oh please god, let Barb be alive!

The cryptic teaser trailer for season two dropped last night, and like a pack of Pavlov's dogs, Stranger Things addicts have been left drooling all over the floor. No doubt more trailers will have us on swivel-eyed tenterhooks before the second season arrives next year, but while we've got to get through a few more months before we can feast on its delicious '80s goodness — like Eleven tearing into a box of Eggos — it hasn't stopped the internet offering some pretty plausible fan theories for the next chapters in the saga. Here are some of our favourites.

Breaking the episode title code

While we could stare at the Stranger Things font for days, it was the random words weaving in and out of those sexy red neon letters that revealed potential clues to next season's narrative. Just like the first season, these titles are pretty obscure, to say the least, but releasing them so early, months before they arrive on Netflix, has got to be a conscious tactic from the show's creators.

Madmax is an obvious reference to an '80s setting, but could it also refer to the dystopian mirror of the Upside Down?

The Boy Who Came Back To Life seems to be a reference to Will Byers' resurrection from the Upside Down in season one, but it could also be a more pointed reference to the polarity of the real world and the Upside Down. Was this horrifying place more than just some parallel universe and actually a kind of Hell-cum-Hades? Does that make the Demogorgon a demon of sorts, and Eleven a kind of Messiah?

The Pollywog is one of the more interesting suggestions. A pollywog is a tadpole, the juvenile form of a frog. It seems likely that the gross nightmare slugs crawling out of Barb and vommed by Will could be baby Demogorgons. Could an army of the flap-faced bastards be on the cards?

The final episode's title, The Lost Brother, hints at another unexplained aspect from season one: are there ten other experimental children out there? Could one of Eleven's siblings be making an appearance?

It's not where is the Upside Down... It's when

Another popular fan theory making the rounds is that the Upside Down is not in fact a parallel universe, but the future, on an earth that has been overrun by murderous creatures, possibly aliens. This sounds like drawing a pretty long bow, but it would explain why all the same human-constructed structures exist in the Upside Down, and why Will Byers was apparently hooked up to some gross, slimy hosepipe when his mum and Chief Hopper discover him: is he being impregnated, Alien-style?

The fact that Joyce and Hopper are able to retrieve Will relatively easily, despite multiple trained, heavily armed soldiers getting ripped to shreds in the Upside Down, and that Dr Brenner describes the first encounter with the Demogorgons as "making contact", adds extra weight to this theory. It would also explain why Will seems to be kept in some kind of flux with the Upside Down. Could it be that poor kid is being used as a slug-mule to bring baby Demogorgons into the past, starting the eventual apocalypse that transformed our world into the Upside Down?

Eleven is the Demogorgon

Without question, Eleven is a massive part of why Stranger Things is such a kick ass show. She's touching, bad ass, heartbreaking and generally we want to be her. She flipped a truck with her muvva-luvin' mind: she is everything. But what if our heroine was also the villain? Eagle-eyed fans have fished quite a lot of compelling evidence from season one that points to Eleven simultaneously being the Demogorgon. Firstly, the blank, black abyss where Eleven discovers the Demogorgon seems to be somewhere far more abstract than the Upside Down, quite possibly her own subconscious.

Eleven even says, "I am the monster," which seems like she's lamenting her powers and the terrible things that she has been forced to do by Dr Brenner, but this could be far more literal. Fans have also noted that in Eleven's final showdown with the Demogorgon the creature appears to be mimicking Eleven's movements, raising its hand to mirror her. Eleven also recognises both Barb and Will from photographs, without having ever met them. Could this indicate that she has in fact seen both, but in her Demogorgon form?

Other Stranger Things fanatics have taken the analysis to subatomic levels, noting that the Demogorgon is a two-headed creature, that is constantly in conflict with itself. One head is violence and vengeful, the other is scheming and manipulative, which definitely matches the distinction between the Demogorgon's physical brutality and Eleven's cerebral powers. The number 11 could also be a subtle metaphor: it looks the same upside down as it does right side up, and its two characters are individually distinct and yet only make sense as a pair.