Things you can learn about Stranger Things
Companion book drops details about production choices, as well as hints about Season 3
Netflix has a small treat for “Stranger Things” fans this Halloween.
Sure, a bigger treat would be a whole new season of the hit supernatural show, but while fans wait for Season 3 to arrive they can tide themselves over with “Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down” (Del Rey, 223 pages), the official companion book to the Netflix series.
Part coffee table book and part behind-the-scenes narrative, “Worlds” melds beautiful artwork from the series with details about the production that are almost as magical as the show itself. We picked out five of the most interesting tidbits, plus some exciting new hints about what’s to come in Season 3.
The original title for the series was “Montauk”
The Duffer brothers have made no secret of their love of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, but the original iteration of the story went one step further. The original script for the pilot was called “Montauk,” to pay tribute to their “favourite film of all time,” “Jaws.” The original script was set in the small Long Island town instead of Hawkins, Indiana, and the big mysterious government facility was “Montauk Air Force Station,” known as “Camp Hero.” Eventually, though, they moved the location due to filming concerns on Long Island, and the fact that the Duffers were more familiar with midwestern suburbs than beachside towns.
Steve was supposed to die in Season 1
When the Duffers originally imagined what Steve would be like, they pictured him as a villain character who was irredeemable, who was “never intended to make it out of the first season alive.” That all changed when Joe Keery got the part and turned Steve into the lovable, sweet guy that definitely made it into Season 2 (and stole the show, to boot).
Eleven was supposed to die, too
You probably guessed this one. In the original imagining of the season, Eleven was supposed to sacrifice herself to save her friends and not come back. “But once we realized that the show was potentially going to go on longer than one season, we needed to leave it more up in the air, because deep down we knew the show just wouldn’t really work without Eleven,” Ross says in the book. “And at that point we knew how special Millie was. If there were going to be more ‘Stranger Things’ (seasons), Eleven had to come back.”
The Upside Down is made of bubble wrap (and some other stuff)
In a section of the book that is, fittingly, upside down, special effects co-ordinator Caius Man reveals that bubble wrap and sheet plastics that were melted and painted helped create the creepy vines that populate the Upside Down. “We spent three months, closer to four, probably, fooling around with every chemical and flexible stretchy thing and meltable thing we could get our hands on,” Man explains in the book.
In Season 2 when many of the characters visit the tunnels from the Upside Down that have sprouted all over Hawkins, the spores in the air are dandelion seeds.
The boys almost didn’t dress up as ‘Ghostbusters’ for Halloween in Season 2
The filmmakers long knew they wanted the boys to dress up in the iconic jumpsuits of the “Ghostbusters” when the show covered Halloween, but their first request for the rights to the costumes was denied. Eventually, producer Shawn Levy made a personal appeal to “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, and they were able to secure the rights.
Bonus: Some hints about Season 3
A teaser released earlier this year showed Steve and a new character played by Maya Hawke working at Hawkins’ new Starcourt Mall. The book confirms that Steve is now a high school graduate, it’s the summer of 1985, and our burgeoning couples from Season 2 (Mike and Eleven and Max and Lucas) are now official. The new season will follow the teens’ raging hormones, but also takes inspiration from classic body horror like Dave Cronenberg’s “Shivers.”
Ross calls the season the “most fun,” but also the “grossest.” The book also confirms that the Mind Flayer monster is definitely not gone.