We're only days away from the second season of Netflix's Stranger Things hitting the streaming circuit, and we'll soon get to check back in with all the characters we came to know and love in the first season. Not a whole lot of footage has been released so far, but the most recent trailer did reveal the team-up of two unexpected characters: high school cool kid Steve and the D&D-loving middle schooler Dustin. Joe Keery plays Steve on the series, and he had this to say about working with Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin in Season 2:
When we got the first two or three scripts, maybe four, I didn't really know until about halfway through the season. I was kind of asking The Brothers about what was going on and they kind of mentioned 'well maybe you and Gaten are gonna team up.' I'm thinking 'How the hell is that gonna happen or work out?' but they kind of found this way to kind of connect these two characters that both kind of needed somebody and, I don't know, I've just really enjoyed his work in the first season so getting a chance to work with him, I feel like he's ten years younger than me but he's teaching me so much stuff.
Well, it's safe to say that the funny scene at the end of the last trailer wasn't the only Steve/Dustin material we'll get out of Season 2! While we won't know the exact context of what brings them to join forces in the next batch of episodes, Joe Keery's comments seem to indicate that both Steve and Dustin needed a new ally. Given that the trailers seem to point toward Nancy spending a lot of her time with Jonathan, Steve might be spending a lot of time with the middle school kids, which should be a lot of fun. As for Dustin... well, it seems like Will will be getting a lot of the attention in Season 2. He may be looking for a partner in crime for some investigations.
Steve the irresponsible babysitter definitely has a lot of potential to mix things up for Season 2, which already looks wild with that big Shadow Monster. We can bet that he won't be keeping the kids out of trouble; if anything, they may rope him into some of their dangerous shenanigans. Joe Keery explained more about working with all the kids in Season 2, saying this:
Working with the kids is crazy, because one second we will be in the scene, next second they will be joking and punching each other and trying to pants each other and yelling profanities at each other and it's like 'action' and they all go at the same time into this, they can switch it on and switch it off and they don't take it so seriously. Sometimes you, I don't know, you get caught up in the fact that you have to memorize these lines and this stuff but at the end of the day they have a fun time with it. So that was a really nice presence to have. I guess as far as the arc, I just had so much fun working with him and, yeah, I think that's something that, kind of in the way that Steve needed Nancy last year to grow up, I think he needed the kids this year to kind of grow up. And he sort of learns this new lesson that he wouldn't have been able to learn without them.
The kids (who will be way more foul-mouthed in Season 2) and Steve all probably have a lot to learn from each other. I'm guessing Joe Keery isn't just hinting that Steve will learn the ropes of Dungeons & Dragons to join the boys in Mike's basement for campaigns, although it would be fun to see Nancy's reaction if she walked down the basement stairs to find Steve hanging out with her little brother and his friends. Who knows? After venturing into the Upside Down together, they may all be friends.
Luckily, we don't have to wait and speculate for all that much longer. Season 2 of Stranger Things will premiere on Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. PT on Netflix. Don't forget to check out the episode of the Cord Cutters podcast all about Stranger Things while we wait for the big premiere.
