Future seasons of 'Stranger Things' could jump significantly forward in time

"Stranger Things" is widely regarded as the hit series of the summer, and a second season has been all but confirmed by Netflix. But what would that second season look like?

The creators of "Stranger Things," Matt and Ross Duffer (better known as the Duffer Brothers) already have several ideas in mind. But one thing is clear - they want to keep the same stellar cast of child actors around.

"The dream is a 'Harry Potter' situation," Matt Duffer told Entertainment Weekly. "I love watching kids growing up on camera. So the idea [of] seeing where these kids and these characters are one year later is cool to me. And it allows us to explore the mythology of our nether."

Though "Stranger Things" has a stacked cast all around, the young children were the focal point of talent for most viewers. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) is 12-years old, while Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) are all 13 years old.

If the Duffer Brothers wind up writing future seasons, allowing the characters to age alongside their actor-counterparts would be an ideal plan. And, as they pointed out, the "Harry Potter" franchise did this with great success when it came to Emma Watson (Hermione), Rupert Grint (Ron), and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry).

This is important from fans' standpoints because it would allow the story to naturally progress forward without the need to suspend disbelief about a 16-year-old actor playing an 8th grader. This happened in "Game of Thrones," when fans noticed actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark) going through a growth spurt that far outpaced his character's age.

But it opens up more than that, as Kevin Yeoman at ScreenRant points out. "The other obvious advantage of this approach to the series is that it doesn't limit the narrative of 'Stranger Things' to a time when its central characters were just pre-teens," Yeoman wrote.

Aging the kids up a bit could come in handy if the Duffer Brothers decide to explore the spookier side of "Stranger Things" in future seasons. In an interview with Variety, Ross Duffer explained how the Upside Down has much more to it that wasn't explored in season one.

"We have a 30-page document that is pretty intricate in terms of what [the Upside Down] all means, and where this monster actually came from [...] we have all this stuff that we just didn't have time for, or we didn't feel like we needed to get into in season one, because of the main tension of Will," Ross Duffer told Variety. "We have that whole other world that we haven't fully explored in this season, and that was very purposeful."

We love the idea of following the gang as they enter high school, especially if Eleven makes it back into the picture. Then her and Will can continue their adorably awkward foray into dating (and maybe joint monster fighting?).

The season finale left plenty of questions about the Upside Down (and Eleven, Hopper, and Hawkins Lab) unanswered, practically begging for fans to demand a second season. So if - or should we say when - it comes, expect to see a significant jump forward in time.

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