The second season of Stranger Things needs to escalate the situation further, and it sounds like the show will deliver on the villainous front.
Stranger Things producer and director Shawn Levy spoke to Gold Derby recently. Per Moviefone, here’s a transcription of the pertinent bits:
"“Will Byers is very much at the center of several intersecting challenges and threats in Season 2, and I think overall the kind of forces of evil that are inherent in Season 2 make that Demogorgon look quaint in retrospect.”"
Part of Stranger Things‘ strength was that it didn’t try and do something too completely ridiculous in the first season. That probably seems like an odd way of expressing things, considering the fact that the show introduced a parallel dimension, a girl with psychic powers (and the implication that she wasn’t the only one), and even more.
Think of it this way. If the first season of House of Cards had ended with Frank Underwood as president, would it seem realistic? Probably not, considering that he starts out in Congress first. But back to Stranger Things.
Even as it let the story grow weirder as the eight episodes continued, the show captured a small-town sort of aesthetic as part of its greater nostalgia. It also left room for things to get even worse as the story progresses, assuming Netflix keeps renewing it.
Levy mentioning Will Byers by name has us curious indeed. Obviously, he has to play a bigger part than just going missing as he did in season 1. That’s no surprise. What is surprising is that Levy juxtaposes Will’s name with words like “forces of evil” and “threats.”
Based on the end of season 1, Will’s time in the Upside Down didn’t leave him completely unscarred, but it did leave him with the fun new ability to cough up slugs into a bathroom sink. Could it be that Will himself becomes a threat to Hawkins? That kind of corruption certainly could “make that Demogorgon look quaint in retrospect,” to quote Levy again.
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Alternatively, it could be that other residents of the Upside Down want Will back for whatever reason.