‘Stranger Things’ Season 2 to focus on parallel dimension; Will hasn’t really escaped Upside Down

The 80s inspired series “Stranger Things,” written and directed by The Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross), took viewers to a very strange world, a parallel dimension, over its eight episodes on Netflix. [Spoiler Alert] Now, the show creators have revealed that this parallel dimension, called Upside Down, would be the prime focus for “Stranger Things” Season 2.

While Season 1 was able to solve the central mystery of Will Byers’ (Noah Schnapp) disappearance, it confused viewers with many unsolved questions/mysteries and that was done purposefully, The Duffer Brothers revealed.

They also teased that even though Will is back to safety and reunited with mum Joyce (Winona Ryder), brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), he hasn’t really escaped Upside Down. The season finale showed Will having a vision of the parallel dimension while washing his hands in front of a bathroom mirror.

“The idea is he’s escaped this nightmare place, but has he really? That’s a place we wanted to go and potentially explore in season two. What effect does living in there for a week have on him? And what has been done to him? It’s not good, obviously,” Ross told Variety back in July.

He added that the brothers love the idea of Upside Down being an environment not conducive to human beings. Unfortunately, Will had to be in that alien environment for a week and it had certain effects on him both emotionally as well as physically.

When asked on what was the purpose of keeping viewers in the dark even after solving the central theme, Ross had a very straightforward answer. The creators simply wanted viewers to not know or understand anything.

“What we wanted to do with the show — and this season specifically — was mostly seeing the mystery and these extraordinary things through the eyes of these ordinary characters. By the end of the show they don’t know or understand everything. That is purposeful ... We wanted to resolve the main mystery of Will being gone, that was the story of this season,” he explained.