After the Upside Down turned a sleepy town on its head in Stranger Things, Hawkins, Indiana deserves a break. But it doesn’t look like it’s going to get it. Three new characters have been added to the show for Season 2, and their backstories could really spice up the plot.
The enigmatic Roman might be one of the MK Ultra test patients still haunted by the Hawkins lab, nerdy Bob Newby will surely try and help Mike and the gang try to communicate with Eleven in the Upside Down, and the sinister Dr. Owens will try and mop up the inter-dimensional problems leftover from Dr. Brenner in Season 1.
These three additions to the show join step-sibling characters Billy and Max among the new faces for Season 2, which is set to bow on Netflix next summer.
Danish Actress and relative newcomer Linnea Berthelsen will play Roman, who Netflix describes as, “an emotionally damaged, magnetic young woman who suffered a great loss as a child. Although she does not live in Hawkins, she is mysteriously connected to the supernatural events at the lab.
Rumors pointed out that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer were looking to cast Roman in a “gender-neutral role, and it’s good to see Berthelsen as another actor of color in Hawkins.
In what has to be the most perfect casting of the series so far, actor Sean Astin plays Bob, who Netflix describes as a kindhearted former nerd who went to high-school with Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour) and now manages the local Hawkins RadioShack.”
It’s perhaps the most perfect casting in the series so far considering Aston appeared as Mikey, the leader the mischievous gaggle of best friends in 1980s classic The Goonies, which is one of the prime influences on Stranger Things.
Then there’s Paul Reiser as Dr. Owens, who will be “a high-ranking member within the Department of Energy on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the events of last year.”
The Duffers have stated that the work of James Cameron was also a prime influence on the second season, which makes Reiser’s casting even better. Reiser memorably played the same kind of corporate stooge character in Cameron’s Aliens. Considering that Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner was all but killed by the Demogorgon in Season 1, expect Owens to be the main bad guy this time around.
