Warning: spoilers ahead
If you’ve seen the first season of Stranger Things then you probably have one big question for the Duffer Brothers; What happened to Barbara? Yes, you’re probably little curious about the fate of Eleven, what’s going on with Will, and what that egg could mean about the Demogorgon, but all those strange things will most likely be the focus of the seemingly inevitable season 2. However, if the show was willing to gloss over whatever happened regarding Barb and her parents then many probably fear that season 2 will have no problem doing the same. Matt and Ross Duffer have opened up to IGN about what fans can expect for season 2, and the fate of their favorite forgotten character.
The last time fans remember seeing Barb, things were looking pretty grim for the red head. She was spotted looking unmistakably dead, with the same slug-like creature slithering out of her mouth that Will had coughed up at the end of the season, but as many horror and sci-fi fans know, what appears dead doesn’t always stay dead.
When asked if Barb would be returning for season 2, Matt stated “I can’t see it happening. But Barb will not be forgotten. We’ll make sure there’s some justice for Barb. People get very frustrated, understandably, that the town doesn’t seem to be really dealing with Barb. That stuff is all happening. We’re just not spending any screen time on it. It’s not like her parents are like ‘Oh Barb left. She died!’ Season One actually takes place over the course of six or seven days – it’s a really short period of time. So part of what we want to do with hypothetical Season 2 is to explore the repercussions of everything that happened.”
On the topic of main villain, Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner, the Duffer brothers indicated that there would be more to come. The last time Brenner was seen, he was getting mauled by the Demogorgon and many presumed him dead. When asked whether or not Brenner had been killed, Matt stated “I would say that if we were going to kill Brenner… as an audience member watching the show, if that was his death, that would be very unsatisfying to me – when the monster jumps on him and we cut away. He would deserve much more than that as an ending. So yes, there’s a possibility of seeing him again.”
The Duffer brothers also spoke on where season 2 will pick up, whenever Netflix decides to announce it. “You have to do the Harry Potter thing”, said Matt “you have to jump a year. Because like Gaten [Dustin], his voice has already dropped quite a bit, to the point where we couldn’t even do ADR [automated dialogue replacement] with him. We had to pitch it way up. It’s dropped. He’s grown. As much as I would love to have it be Christmas right after that, it’s just not feasible, so we’re going to skip a year. They’ll be a year older and all the changes they’re going through, we’ll take that into account and kind of work that into the show.” Ross added “it’s also just exciting having these initial conversations about it because the jump allows us to say ‘what happened in that year?’ It actually opens up a lot more storytelling possibilities. These characters have changed and the audience has to sort of fill in those gaps of what went on in that year. To us, it’s exciting. So the fact that we have to make this jump, because of the kids, we’re trying to use that to our advantage.”
The brothers also spoke about whether or not fans would be seeing more of Eleven. Matt said “we wanted to leave it purposefully ambiguous. We always, from the very beginning, liked this sort of childlike idea that this escapee from this facility with these amazing powers would be able to just move into Mike’s basement and they’d have this wonderful life together and she’d go to school. It’s not that simple. The goal is to make it as complicated as possible, and without going into too much detail, to really tear them apart at the end of that season, to make things much more difficult. But we love Eleven.” Before fans start mourning, Ross added a glimpse of light to break through the darkness, “the great thing about having a portal to another dimension is that you’re not boxed in, narratively. There’s a lot we can do.”
If you need something to tide you over until the release (or at least announcement) of Stranger Things season 2, the second volume of the Stranger Things soundtrack has just been released, which is guaranteed to put you in that strange mood.