[Spoilers from Season 1 below]
The first substantial footage from Stranger Things’ second season unfolds following an atmospherically creepy, static-bedecked and sonically distorted clip of an Eggo commercial — the nostalgic frozen waffle being an oft-referenced phenomenon in the series’ world of quaint small town American delights, barren, ashen wastelands, and offal, repugnantly-mouthed monsters. From there, there are really three big take-aways from this thing. At this point, it’d already been announced that the ambiguously-fated fan favorite, Eleven (well, I suppose Barb was the fan favorite, but her fate wasn’t exactly ambiguous), would be returning. And one of the first images following the Eggo commercial is:
Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven appears, with her bloody-nose-of-distress, literally upside down, which would seem to suggest that she’s stuck in the Upside Down. Then, there’s an image of the Stranger Things kids biking; of note is the fact that there are only three of them; they’re apparently not hanging with Will Byers, who they spent so much time trying to rescue in the first season; now that he’s no longer stuck in a soul-leeching abyss, apparently they’re too cool for him. That, or the slug that came out of his mouth at the end of the last season has led to whatever the hell is happening in Season 2, in which case, sure, it’d make sense that they’re not casually chilling with a chaos-inducing paranormal slug host. Another related absence here is that of Winona Ryder; perhaps she’s likewise off taking care of her slug-son.
The next very notable image is:
The season, it’s been revealed, will be released to stream on Netflix on Halloween, and it appears from this Ghostbusters reference that the season could likewise center around the holiday so often associated, in movies, with creepy things happening in small town America. But the biggest reveal of all is what looks to be a new monster — something of a lightning arachnid:
The season is set a year after the first, which apparently is the amount of time it takes a town to acquire a whatever-that-thing-is; the teaser, which you can watch below, aired during the Super Bowl.
Watch: