【Mother】

Now that filming has wrapped on Motherthe second season of Stranger Things, fans are already dying to know what comes next for the Netflix series. Given how secretive the production was, though, getting your hands on any solid information was a difficult thing to do -- until now.

The cast of Stranger Thingsjoined creators Matt and Ross Duffer, along with director and executive producer Shawn Levy, on the red carpet at the show's Emmy For Your Consideration event and came prepared to drop some major hints about what to expect from the upcoming season.

Picking up a year after the events of Season 1 -- Season 2 is centered around Halloween -- Matt Duffer hints that while all may seem good with the group of friends that battled the Demogorgon to save Will Byers (Noah Schnepp), looks can be deceiving. "We start where there's this facade and everything seems fine but then you realize there's all these cracks and everything is not okay," he says. "Then it sort of begins to slowly unravel from there."

"When something traumatic happens, I do think there's this human tendency to want to suppress it and not confront it and not really deal with it. So we wanted to play with that idea that you can't hide from this," his twin brother Ross adds. "People aren't able to heal unless they're about to actually deal with what's happened."

That's going to land especially hard on Mike (Finn Wolfhard), who not only led his friends into a fight against a demon but also lost Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), someone he cared deeply about.

"He's kind of given up in the sense that he has nobody to fight for anymore. His appearance is kind of dimmed sort and he's sort of like a ghost," Wolfhard explains. "He doesn't really get bullied anymore but he's sort of just there. He's one of those guys that's just around."

"I think Mike is probably the most outwardly affected when we first pick up because of his relationship with Eleven and what happened there," Ross says. "I think it's interesting to see because he was clearly the de facto leader early on and we see him take a step back."

However, it's not just Mike that will be changing before viewers' eyes; Ross continues, "I think we start to see sides of all three characters, which I think is going to be fun."

Of course, there's also the issue of whatever is happening with Will. In the closing moments of Stranger ThingsSeason 1, Will is seen coughing up remnants of the Upside Down -- the dark dimension he spent most of the season trapped in -- before momentarily flashing back there during Christmas dinner. As the new season picks up, Will is still afflicted by the Upside Down, and it's something his friends can't help but notice.

"They're trying to make sure they don't talk about it a lot, trying that whole 'pretend it didn't happen' thing," says Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin. At a certain point, though, it simply can't be ignored.

As Wolfhard elaborates, "We're basically just finding out more and more about [Will], trying to find out what's wrong with him. He's having very weird psychological and physical effects from everything. He's trying to deal with it; Joyce (Winona Ryder) is trying to deal with it as well."

While the trials they face will bring the boys -- and eventually Eleven -- closer together, there will also be some new faces arriving in Hawkins to round out the case. The most important of the bunch may be Max (Sadie Sink), who attempts to work her way into their tight-knit group.

"She's this sort of tomboy, badass little skateboarder punk," Wolfhard says. "She shows the boys that you can be a lot more inviting." While breaking into their very exclusive clique may seem difficult at first, if anyone is up for the task it's Max. "It's tough because because you're looking for another kid to join this group of kids who are already incredible," Matt teases. "Sadie knocked it out of the park."

Her older stepbrother is an entirely different story. Billy is played by Dacre Montgomery, most recently seen as the Red Ranger in the big screen Power Rangers reboot. "This is like the total opposite. He's not a good guy," Matt says with a laugh. "That's what we liked about him. He looks like he should be the lead in Power Rangersbut I like taking that and making him a terrible person. It was fun. He's the human villain."

With so much story to cover and so many new characters to introduce, the nine-episode second season of Stranger Things (one installment longer than Season 1) has its work cut out for it. If the happiness and pride that the cast and crew show after wrapping production is any indication though, it seems like they might have pulled it off.

Stranger ThingsSeason 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.

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