‘Stranger Things’ Creators Tease ‘Ghostbusters’ & ‘Gremlins Influence

The Duffer Brothers have teased classic '80s films such as Ghostbusters and Gremlins will have an influence on the second season of Stranger Things.

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer aka The Duffer Brothers have teased classic ’80s films such as Ghostbusters and Gremlins will have an influence on the second season of the Netflix smash hit series which was an homage to both the films of Steven Spielberg and the novels of Stephen King in its freshman outing.

On their way back to the editing bay after wrapping production in Atlanta, The Duffer Brothers stopped by Variety to appear as guests on the Remote Controlled podcast in which they opened up and shared some interesting insight into what fans can expect from the upcoming sequel season the streaming service has branded as Stranger Things 2.

Ross revealed that they knew early on the second season would not be able to realistically release on Netflix until Halloween 2017 so they decided to use that to inspire the new season, setting the new season during the Holiday as they fed off of the several of the other films that released that year for inspiration:

“The hope was summer again but when he realized that realistically we need a little bit longer, the Halloween date was thrown out and immediately we said ‘what if we just set this around Halloween?’ and then it started to all click into place… It’s nice to have this sort of thematic Halloween feel to it. And of course the costumes. There’s a party with teenagers and you’ve got Karate Kid and it’s just fun to make all these little references that I do feel would be realistic for the time. And Ghostbusters of course.”

Matt went on to add that in addition to the costumes seen in the Super Bowl spot, the series will make references to Ghostbusters, as well as Gremlins in the upcoming season:

“They use these movies and the games that the play to help inform themselves about what’s going on in terms of the supernatural. Dungeons & Dragons was such a big part of it last year and so Ghostbusters plays a bit of a role and there’s definitely some Gremlins influence this year too.”

Ghostbusters costumes themselves would have been amongst some of the most popular costumes in the fall of 1984 which was a seminal year for 80’s culture in entertainment as the summer saw not just the release of Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and The Karate Kid, but other iconic 80’s films including The Terminator and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — which the Duffer Brothers have already cited as a touchstone for the second season.

The next adventure picks up a year after season one with the town of Hawkins, Indiana set to deal with a much bigger threat than the Demogorgon this time around. The teaser revealed not only is Will still dealing with the consequences of his time spent in the upside down, but that world itself is now turning upside down with a giant War of the Worlds meets Stephen King’s The Mist like monster looming over Hawkins.

Stranger Things 2 stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Noah Schnapp. The series has also added Sean Astin (The Goonies), Paul Reiser (Aliens), Brett Gelman (Jobs), Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers), Danish actress Linnea Berthelsen, and broadway star Sadie Sink into the mix as well.

Stranger Things 2 hits Netflix this Halloween. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest news on Stranger Things as we learn it.

Source: Variety