File this one under “best news you’ll hear all day”: everyone’s new Netflix obsession may not be over just yet. Stranger Things, the ’80s childhood spooky B-movie extravaganza that is taking the internet by storm, is already streaming all of season one on Netflix. But the showrunners, twin brothers Ross and Matt Duffer, revealed that they left some of the mythology open-ended by the end of season one on purpose.
“We have the main tangent of Will going missing in these paranormal, supernatural circumstances,” executive producer Matt Duffer told reporters at the TCA Summer Press tour. “We wanted it to feel like a movie and we wanted to solve that so it feels very much complete in that sense. But there’s a bigger mythology at play so it’s open-ended in a way that if people wanted it and if Netflix wanted it we could explore it in a second season.”
Ross agreed, adding that they didn’t want the audience to feel like they were being left unsatisfied if the series didn’t move forward. But they still wanted to dangle that egg to keep viewers coming back for more.
“We have answers for all of this,” Ross said. “This season we’re slowly peeling back the mystery and hopefully by the end we’ve revealed as much of it as possible so it feels satisfying. It is otherworldly and weird so maybe some things are not as easily explained. I love that people are out there debating the meaning of everything. It’s really fun.”
But something that no one, even the cast members themselves, saw coming was the obsessive-like fandom that spawned immediately after the first season hit Netflix.
“The reaction from the audience was phenomenal,” star Millie Brown says. “Our fans are called the ‘Strangers,’ I think? [Laughs] I think that’s a thing. We knew it had taken off by the reaction.”
“The reaction has been completely overwhelming in the best possible way,” star Winona Ryder said. “I don’t think I was expecting it but I also have a great system where my parents read everything and they forward me only the positive stuff.”
Ryder revealed that she signed on to Stranger Things because it was “a role I’d never done and it was a genre I’d never done.” Stranger Things allowed her to begin a new chapter in her acting career.
“I naturally grew up and then the second part of that for me was my 30s were a little bit tough,” Ryder said. “I either looked too young or people didn’t buy me as the age I was. But in the last few years, I did a couple things I was proud of in very supporting roles, like in Show Me a Hero, that was really Oscar Isaac’s show. But this is my first series and my first foray into this format.”
For the child stars of Stranger Things, acting like they were kids of the ’80s was especially hard when they never actually lived that decade.
“Holding a giant walkie talkie was crazy,” said Stranger Thing’s Dustin, Gaten Matarazzo. “We would play around with those. But I thought it was really cool because nowadays you don’t see kids riding their bikes. You just see kids like, ‘Hey! Look, I got a Pikachu, let me text my friends.’ So it was really fun to be a kid in the ’80s when I was shooting.”
Brown agreed, adding, “For me, it was the freedom. The freedom of riding your bike and going to the store was amazing. And the record player. I had no idea what a record player was. And now I got one for Christmas. I now know what that is, so that’s great.”
Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas, was a sucker for the costumes. “For me, the parachute pants, for sure,” he said. “We were filming when it was hot outside and I was never sweaty. And the big hairstyles.”
“It was a great period piece,” Brown said, as the adults in the room burst into laughter.
What do you think of Netflix’s new hit series Stranger Things? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum and get strange in the comments below!
Stranger Things is now streaming on Netflix.
Image: Netflix
