Netflix is keeping understandably quiet on Stranger Things 2, but one wonders if we’ll endure the same wait for an official renewal as before. At the very least, the Duffer brothers seem to be overflowing with ideas, as director Shawn Levy claims portions of Season 2 had to be trimmed for a potential third season.

Speaking with Mashable, director-producer Levy theorized that three-fourths of the initial ideas for Stranger Things 2 will have made it into the final cut, with the rest potentially earmarked for a third year. Prior claims have listed the full series as running four or five seasons, which could change if story points keep spilling over:

As the episodes were written by the Duffers, they realized that there was too much story for nine episodes. So it forced us to be judicious in which stories we tell this season. So one of the surprises was, not all of our grand ideas are going to be serviced in one season… If we had 40 ideas going into the season, 30 [we] are going to pick, and the rest go in the back of our head for, hopefully, future chapters.

As much density of story as our show has, we have to service the characters — and the moments and relationships between characters — above everything. If we stop being character-anchored, and we become pure genre, I think we take the beating heart out of Stranger Things, and we take the thing that people maybe don’t write articles about the most, but I think it’s what they love the most — these characters on screen.

Elsewhere of Stranger Things Season 2, we know the next chapter will move from its summer perch to a Halloween 2017 premiere. The story will pick up in the fall of 1984, while creators Matt and Ross Duffer have teased a James Cameron sequel influence in crafting the second chapter.

We’ll also learn more about the Demogorgon and Upside Down, as teased in our exclusive concept art piece, while Sadie Sink and Power Rangers star Dacre Montgomery have been added to the cast in regular roles, along with Brett Gelman, Goonies alum Sean Astin, Aliens baddie Paul Reiser and actress Linnea Berthelsen. The full list of directors has also been revealed, including Finding Dory helmer Andrew Stanton.

We’ll learn more of Stranger Things Season 2 in the coming months, so stay tuned for additional details, and check out the teaser again below.

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