untitled

One of the big draws of

the series is, of course, its knack

for channelling a certain kind of

nostalgia – all BMX bikes, skinny

T-shirts and 80s board games –

and one of the great pleasures of

watching it is trying to spot the

references, from The Goonies to

Poltergeist to Stand By Me. When

Matt and Ross pitched the show

to Netflix, they made a kind of

“lookbook” filled with the films

they were drawing on. “We took

an old Stephen King book cover

and had a lot of images from

the movies that inspired us,”

Ross explains. “We also made

a fake trailer, where we took

30-something clips from movies.

John Carpenter mashed up with

ET was really cool. So that was

where we started to figure out the

tone of the show.”

The pair’s early Tim Burton

obsession came full circle when,

early in the process, they cast

Edward Scissorhands star Winona

Ryder. Ryder’s involvement

also helped them tease out their

Stranger Things vision. In an

early script, her character Joyce,

the mother of missing boy Will,

was not the nervy, Ouija-lights-

loving Joyce we know today.

“She was a tough-talking Long

Island mom – fuck this, fuck

that, a lot of F-bombs – a very

different character. So when we

cast Winona, we were like, we

have to Winonafy this. She is so

much more interesting than the

character we had written. She’s

got this very unique energy about

her,” says Matt. She got them

thinking about Richard Dreyfuss

in Close Encounters of the Third

Kind, and how everyone assumes

he’s crazy. “Everyone thinks he’s

making a mountain out of mashed

potatoes. And I thought: I want to

see Winona making a mountain

out of mashed potatoes. That’s

gonna be a great scene.”

At 33, Matt and Ross were

born after many of the films

they reference – such as Close

Encounters and ET – were made,

but it came as a big surprise to

them when the show picked up

an even more youthful audience.

“We thought we would appeal

to people like us who grew up

on this kind of storytelling,” says

Ross. “We were just harking back

to the classics. We’re beyond

excited that it appealed to the

younger generation, but we were

not expecting it at all.”

“Well, we told Netflix it

would,” laughs Matt.

“We were BS-ing a

little bit.” When the

first season appeared

on Netflix last

summer, the Duffers’

main concern was that enough

people would actually watch it,

given the sheer amount of good

TV that there is to get through.

But in the last two months, 10

million people have watched

the trailer for season two. The

brothers say Stranger Things 2

will be bigger and wider in scope,

tackling PTSD, love triangles and

a new enemy in the form of a

“shadow monster”. For them, the

princip al difference of having a

hit under their belts is that they

can push a bit harder for scenes

they want to include, even if it

will take longer to shoot them, or

be a little more expensive.

For the cast of the show,

though, life has changed

immeasurably, particularly for

the younger actors, who have

found themselves on red carpets

and magazine covers in almost

constant rotation since Stranger

Things was released. “I didn’t

really realise until we were

walking down the street with

all of them, and you couldn’t

walk without someone trying

to take a picture of them,”

explains Ross. “Their lives are

completely changed. I can say

that none of them have turned

into brats or anything. I mean,

we’ll see, but so far, so good.

They’re very much bonded in

a way that’s going to last for the

rest of their lives.”

Unsurprisingly, anticipation

for the second season is feverish.

Matt and Ross Duffer may be

TV converts now, but the movie

nerds in them are still loud and

proud. “That’s why I wanted to

say Stranger Things 2, because I

don’t want to think about it as a

TV show,” says Matt. “Maybe it’s

a snobby thing, but it’s like: ‘Oh,

I want it to be a movie. I want it

to be a movie sequel.” He smiles.

“I’m still doing movies, in my

head, you know.” 

Stranger Things 2 will be available

on Netflix from 27 Oct

Directors’ cult

Ross (left) and

Matt on the set;

(below) Millie

Bobby Brown

as Eleven

‘We made a fake

trailer where we

took 30 movie clips:

John Carpenter

mashed up with ET’

Stranger

Things

Special

JACKSON LEE DAVIS/NETFLIX