Coen. Wachowski. Duplass. There are a lot of famous siblings making movies and TV together, but right now there’s only one name in the identical-twins category: Duffer. That would be Matt and Ross, the 33-year-old North Carolina natives who pitched Netflix the eight-hour Spielberg movie otherwise known as Stranger Things. One year and 18 Emmy nominations later, the writer-­directors are heading into season two of the pulp-culture sleeper hit (premiering October 27) with more on their minds than finding an ’80s-shaped stone they haven’t yet overturned. “We’re trying to introduce concepts and ideas that can sustain us for at least a few more seasons,” says Matt. (He’s the one with longer hair.) There’s still plenty of Reagan-era nostalgia on deck, from Ghostbusters to Dragon’s Lair, but the cast is deeper—and the Upside Down upside-downier than ever. “We’re dealing with another dimension,” Matt says, “so anything is possible.” Anything, it turns out, but delaying puberty in your teenage stars.

"Our taste is so identical that we can just share a look and communicate quite a lot," Matt says. Joe Pugliese

The internet loves Stranger Things—and it has suggestions. How do you shut out that chatter when it’s time to write?

MATT: I’m so tired of talking about Barb! [Laughs.]

ROSS: I don’t go on Reddit, because I know that’ll be quicksand and I won’t be able to get out. Thankfully, Netflix had green-lit a writer’s room before we officially got renewed, so most of the beats of season two were figured out ahead of time.

Those kids are growing fast. Did you have to work around that?

ROSS: Sometimes I forget until I look back at season one—they were so little and adorable. Like Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin, looked like a little muppet. But now, and even more so into season three, these are full-on teenagers.

MATT: The scary thing is you’re shooting for half a year—and season two takes place over the course of, like, a week, so you can’t have someone have some major growth spurt. You’ll hear changes in their voice, but you can’t do much about puberty. Except maybe shift the pitch.

Writer–Directors: Matt and Ross Duffer Age: 33 Hometown: Durham, North Carolina Best Known For: TV series Stranger Things Less Known For: 2015 horror flick Hidden Binge-Watch Recommendations: Friday Night Lights, The Last Airbender, Freaks and Geeks, Big Little Lies, Rick and Morty ’80s References in Season Two: Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Escape From New York, Temple of Doom, Poltergeist Scariest Horror Creation of all Time: “Pinhead. Hellraiser scarred us.” Favorite Food to Stress-eat on Set: Bojangles’ fried chicken biscuits

You’ve said you want the show to run four or five seasons. Where does that leave us?

MATT: It’s getting dangerously close to where Winona Ryder’s character will be able to watch herself!

ROSS: Lucas came out in 1986.

MATT: We do have her watching a Michael Keaton movie this year, so I’m happy about that.

It seems impossible for shows to sneak up on people nowadays—yet Stranger Things did just that. Did you have any anxiety going in that it was going to sink?

MATT: There’s so much content out there, even good shows get lost. Netflix isn’t spending movie-­level marketing money—they want people to find this stuff through word of mouth. Mr. Robot season two was premiering like a week before us, and I was just like, "how are we going to get any press?"

ROSS: It’s even worse now. I’m glad we came out last summer, because now there’s something new every week.

How does Netflix’s all-at-once release model affect the way the storyline unfolds?

MATT: We’ve written for network television, where you have to worry about hitting these ad breaks, you have to worry about 42 minutes and 10 seconds exactly.

ROSS: With episode five in the first season, when Nancy goes in the tree, I remember being like, it’s not satisfying to have her saved at the end, the way a network show would. We were joking about leaving her there—but then suddenly that cliffhanger felt right to us.