You may not know, but we’re a few weeks away from Stranger Things: Chapter 2. To help drum up interest in the film, Lionsgate released a clip from the first few minutes of the film, which picks up where Chapter 1 left off in 2024.
Last we left, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) survived an attack by the titular aliens that left her boyfriend Ryan dead, and she ends the film recovering in a hospital. But before she can worry about her health bill, she realizes that she’s not as free from the masked killers as she thought, prompting her to take to the streets to avoid them in any way she can, including the morgue.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly , Petsch teased that the next chapter in the Strangers saga would offer more insight into the town of Venus in Oregon. The actor said the sequel’s events will span “pretty much the entire town” and involve about 15 townspeople trying to figure out how Venus came to be this way. Two characters of particular interest are Gregory (Gabriel Basso), Maya’s fellow hospital roommate, and Danica (Brooke Lena Johnson), a hospital nurse who has both.
PETSCH called the value of the Strangers franchise its main killers are “just real people who want to kill you,” and said they’ll also experience something in Chapter 2. What that means is something Lionsgate is keeping close to the vest, but what Maya goes through will demand her “mentally, emotionally, and physically. We help the audience see that by showing a lot of her perspective and questioning reality, because she’s so exhausted… she starts to lose her grip on reality.”
This is a “character horror” movie, said Petsch, who also teased that the already established Chapter 3 could “turn [Maya] into a killer. When all three come out and people watch them, they’ll get the kind of satisfaction they’re looking for.” We’ll see how that turns out when Stranger Things: Chapter 2 hits theaters on September 26.
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