Sean Astin’s role in Stranger Things season 2 involves RadioShack

Season 2 of Stranger Things will call in Sean Astin as the manager of a RadioShack, according to the Duffer brothers, and he’ll play another role, too.

Stranger Things doesn’t return for its second season for another four months, which means that speculation and curiosity runs high. However, the Duffer brothers have dropped hint after hint about what’s happening.

io9 has pulled out a specific detail from a recent talk with Variety‘s podcast, Remote Controlled. This is Ross Duffer speaking, as transcribed by io9:

"“He’s a manager at Radioshack[sic], and he’s dating Joyce. […] It was probably, on the page, the least interesting, and not specifically meant to be as important of a role as it ended up being…”"

Duffer then goes on to say that Astin’s work “elevated” this character. Considering that Astin’s perhaps most famous role is Sam Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that doesn’t feel like much of a surprise.

Let’s start with the reveal that Astin’s character will date Joyce. She didn’t really have a love interest in season 1. Although she seemed to grow close to Chief Hopper, that seemed mostly due to their shared investigation into Will Byers’ disappearance. However, Charlie and Will might not take his presence well.

That’s why the first detail might be the more interesting of the two when it comes to the larger plot of the show. A RadioShack manager means that he has some access to electronics. In fact, they might be kind that might be used to build experimental ways to interact with the Upside Down. Remember, Will actually spoke on the phone with Joyce while he was in the alternate dimension. The question then becomes how much Joyce involves her newfound beau in the goings on of Hawkins, Indiana.

Hopefully it sees the return of the “curiosity box” line to try and explain to him why she and the kids need whatever it is they need, only for him to find out later and probably freak out. It could be a nice bit of comedy, or at least a chance for some great character work.

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Either way, the fact that the Duffer brothers are so excited for this work means we should be, too. Season 2 drops on Halloween.