Stranger Things is an homage of sorts to classic works of horror, like Stephen King's Carrie and David Cronenberg's Scanners. But the Netflix series isn't scary, other than, maybe, the first time you see the Demogorgon. At an Emmys campaign event in Los Angeles on Tuesday, though, Matt and Ross Duffer, the show's creators and executive producers, hinted that there's more horror to come in Stranger Things' second season.
"It's a little bit bigger, and the horror factor goes up," Ross Duffer said of the show's second season, during an event at Netflix's FYSee Space, according to Variety.
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Executive producer Shawn Levy also said at the event that Stranger Things season 2 will be "darker" than the first set of episodes. Still, the producers stressed that the show focuses first and foremost on its characters and their relationships, something they've said in other interviews, too.
"There is a lot of talk — and I've contributed to it — about the move to darker threats and a larger cinematic scale, but here is the thing: Stranger Things works because we root for these kids, and we root for these damaged characters who live on the margins,” Levy said at the Netflix event on Tuesday. "Everyone is struggling with that feeling of being a bit on the outside looking in. But we know that what really brought us here are the characters that people connect to and that feel authentic… so season 2 is every bit as loyal to characters first, and spooky second."
The Duffers also said they were surprised at the series' breakout success.
"Last year when we were making the show, we were just worried that we weren't going to get anyone to watch it at all,” Matt Duffer said at the event. "There was this concern that the show was going to be this little blip in pop culture, so we were just thrilled that people were watching it. And it just snowballed from there."
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