Stranger Things’ season two slogan leads to theory about new monster

Netflix unveiled the first poster for Stranger Things’ second season yesterday and people have begun to theorize about what a certain tagline could be referring to.

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the the first season of Stranger Things.]

The tagline for Stranger Things’ second season is “some doors can’t be closed” and while that obviously refers to the Upside Down — the strange world where Will Byers disappeared to last season — diehard fans are theorizing that it could also be a clue about the season’s new monster.

Prior to the release of the poster, which can be seen below, the monster was theorized to be a version of the thessalhydra, a popular mythical creature often seen in Dungeons & Dragons. While that theory remains to be proven, a new one suggests the monster is both in a part of the Upside Down and Earth, stuck in between the portal that was opened when Will ventured between both worlds.

We’ve known for quite some time that this open pathway to the Upside Down was going to be a part of the show’s second season, but the monster being hidden in the clouds seems to suggest that it’s caught in between its travels from the Upside Down to Earth.

“Maybe the monster has a physical presence in both dimensions,” one person commented on Reddit. “In our world it creates these storms and takes on this cloud-based appearance, and then in later episodes the characters go into the Upside-Down and see the real creature in all its glory. Or maybe it fully enters our world becoming a real physical creature. Not exactly sure how a group of kids will take down a monster that huge though. Maybe they'll get the military involved.”

Netflix

The biggest assumption that people have made for a while now is that the Upside Down would start to merge with the regular world, with creators Matt and Ross Duffer offering up their own confirmation that Stranger Things would start to delve more into the Upside Down. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last summer, Matt Duffer said they only offered a glimpse into the world, promising to explore the horrors of the universe in the new season. His brother added that with the doorway opened, more questions will come into play.

“We obviously have this gate to another dimension, which is still very much open in the town of Hawkins,” Ross said. “And a lot of questions there in terms of, if the Monster is dead, was it a singular monster? What else could be out there? We really don’t go in there much until they go in to find Will at the end. So we’ve opened up this doorway, and to us it’s exciting to talk about, like, what else is behind there?

“There’s a lot more mystery there to be solved.”

The Duffers aren’t the only ones who have hinted at the idea that the open portal will be more terrifying and usher in new nightmares. David Harbour, the actor who plays Chief Jim Hopper, tweeted his own take on the slogan.

There is always the possibility, however, that it’s nothing more than something in the clouds.

“I think it's supposed to play on the idea that humans make meaningful shapes, faces, etc, out of clouds or smoke or otherwise meaningless lines,” another fan wrote. “People can see it differently.”

Whether the monster is trapped in between two realms is a question we’ll figure out a little later on, but expect the Upside Down to be a big component of the show’s second season.

Stranger Things returns to Netflix on Oct. 27.