Posted in: Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: Duffer Bros, eleven, netflix, season 2, stranger things

Stranger Things Writers Share Eleven's Original Season 2 "Mercy Kill"

Okay, it may only be the second edition, but we're already fans of this new "series" that the writers' room behind Matt Duffer & Ross Duffer's Stranger Things have going on. Last week, they offered the first entry under the banner of "Crazy Shit That Almost Happened," a different direction that the second season could've gone in that would've had a huge impact on Will (Noah Schnapp) and Bob (Sean Astin). Well, they're back this afternoon with a new heads-up, this one sticking with Season 2 but shifting the spotlight to Eleven/Jane (Millie Bobby Brown) and her mother, Teresa "Terry" Ives (Aimee Mullins).

As you know, Terry volunteered to take part in Dr. Martin Brenner's (Matthew Modine) program without fully understanding what would be involved. On top of that, Terry was pregnant, with Brenner taking Jane and naming her Eleven. And we know what happened from there, even though Terry fought to get Jane back until she mysteriously ended up in an unresponsive state. Well, it looks like the original plan was for Eleven to end her mother's suffering, as you can see in the tweet below:

For the opener, they started off in Season 2 with what could've been a major game-changer for Will. So you remember how Joyce's (Winona Ryder) "boyfriend-ish" Bob was killed by a Demogorgon while saving Will and Joyce? Well, it wasn't quite supposed to turn out that way. In the tweet below, we learn that Bob was supposed to be killed by Will after he became possessed by the Mind Flayer. Thankfully, the move was considered a bit too dark of a move to have on Will's conscience, possessed or not. Here's a look at the tweet before you begin contemplating just how different the series would've been if that had gone down:

The Duffer Bros Offer Early Thoughts on Stranger Things 5

"We thought Season 4 was going to be eight [episodes], and they were going to be regular length. So if you had interviewed us before four, that's what I would've said. I think we're aiming for eight again. We don't want it to be 13 hours. We're aiming for more like 10 hours or something," Matt explained during an interview with Collider. "I think it's going to be longer than Season 1 because we just have so much to wrap up, but I don't think it's going to be as long as Season 4." As Ross says, much of that has to do with them not having to spend as much time building things up when the season begins. "This season, for instance, it was two hours before our characters even realized the monster was killing people in Hawkins," he explained. "They know what the threat is now, and so that will help speed it up." In the following highlight from an interview with Variety, the Duffer Bros drop a few more clues about what viewers can expect from the spinoff they have in mind:

So When Are They Starting Work on That "Different" Spinoff?

Ross Duffer: "There's a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel. I think actually we're going to start delving into that soon as we're winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it."

Matt Duffer: "The reason we haven't done anything is just because you don't want to be doing it for the wrong reasons, and it was just like, 'Is this something I would want to make regardless of it being related to Stranger Things or not?' And definitely. Even if we took the 'Stranger Things' title off of it, I'm so, so excited about it. But it is not… It's going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix."

Netflix's Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), Brett Gelman (Murray), Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler), and Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner).

Jamie Campbell Bower (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Sweeney Todd), Eduardo Franco (Booksmart, The Binge), and Joseph Quinn (Catherine the Great, Howards End) joined the cast of Stranger Things as series regulars. Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), Sherman Augustus (Into the Badlands, Westworld), Mason Dye (Bosch, The Goldbergs), Nikola Djuricko (Genius, In The Land of Blood and Honey), and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise, V) also joined in recurring roles. In addition, Brett Gelman's Murray Bauman was promoted to series regular. In addition, Amybeth McNulty (Anne with an E), Myles Truitt (Black Lightning), Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South), and Grace Van Dien (The Village) joined the cast.

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