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A human villain, the upside down, and more in ‘Stranger Things’ season 2
"Stranger Things" stars Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Dacre Montgomery (Billy), and Sadie Sink (Max) were in Manila last August at AsiaPOP ComiCon Manila 2017 to hype up the second season of the sci-fi/horror-mystery series.
While none of the cast were able to reveal much due to the desire to keep things airtight until the premiere on October 27, they gave enough morsels to fuel more fan speculation on the '80s-inspired Netflix drama.
Humans Are the Real Monsters
When the Duffer Brothers were in their initial stages of building Montgomery's character Billy, the showrunners pitched an inspiration to the actor: Jack Nicholson.
“What they wanted to insert in the second season is a character that was all human that was scary. And I think Jack Nicholson sort of achieved a lot of success in his villainous roles because of his unpredictable nature,” Montgomery explained.
"They asked me to make reference to him and incorporate some of that into my character because it's unnerving for people to watch something and they sort of don't know what the character's gonna do," he continued.
Billy is a departure in terms of role archetypes and real-life personality for the Perth native — a lead in 2016's hero movie Power Ranger — as the new series regular is an out-and-out villain even without powers.
“In real life, I’m nothing like Billy. He’s so wild and it’s not a representation of who I am, and that’s why it’s fun to get into character because the Duffers gave me, especially towards the end of the season, so much to work with about this volatile, unpredictable, insecure teenage boy,” Montgomery said.
Will Byers, the catalyst for much of the plot of "Stranger Things", will have a darker tone this time around as the effects of his time in the Upside Down begin to manifest though much like Sink, Schnapp was unable to discuss specifics about the transformation.
Heroes and not-so heroes
On the side of the heroes, Sink's Max will be an ally to Will and the boys and a rival against her domineering step-sibling Billy.
Like Schnapp, Sink mostly kept quiet on her character and the reason why the season's first episode (Madmax) is named after Max.
Meanwhile, Steve will start where audiences left him off — in the loving arms of the conflicted Nancy Wheeler — to "going through a change" that will morph the atoning jock, for better or for worse.
"I would say he hasn't completely changed but he's going through a change so you'll kind of get new things; but he definitely travels — the arc is just as big as it was last year, I'd say," Keery said.
Portraying Steve remains interesting for Keery, who said, "Nobody's a total jerk for no reason, why would you just be a jerk for no reason? Trying to bring a little life to it, make it seem relatable."
As for the love triangle between Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan: "I think in this season, it'll continue to do kind of more surprising and different things, and I think there's a reason they're doing each of these things."
Keeping things mum
Running along the Duffer Brothers' agenda of keeping all details of the second season under wraps, the cast kept details to a minimum when talking about the show, though they've had plenty of practice with friends and family.
"It is cool, like my friends are fans of the show (and go) 'Oh my gosh, you know everything that happens in season two' and like, oh yeah, sorry, can't tell you," Sink said.
"They don't wanna let anything out, so they give out these little slides for you to read for the day of what you're gonna film. Last year, you would just like leave them somewhere and that's it," said Schnapp, adding that slides this year had to be returned to avoid photos from leaking out.
Speculation for the show has gone to the point that Montgomery's friends in Australia are wheedling him for information to better their chances on an entertainment betting site.
"No joke, you can bet for money, it says 'who dies first in 'Stranger Things 2''; it has a list of people and my friends in Australia were coming to me going, 'Mate, I can win big money, you can put big money on this'," Montgomery laughed. "I was like, yeah, but my career can be over big, we can have a lawsuit in our hands."
Further seasons
Neither Scnapp nor Keery knows if there are more seasons left in the "Stranger Things" universe, but the latter appreciates the mostly self-contained stories in each season.
"I can imagine it would mostly be just helpful for the writers, if they were like, this is what we see, we'd like to do this. 'Cause there are a lot of shows that are like, yeah, let's do another one, and it's kind of better to have this contained story that has a beginning, middle, end," he speculated.
"Maybe that's their idea. That being said, maybe the show is going on for ten seasons; I have no idea." — AT, GMA News
