<P> The Duffers wrote the second season to make the combined first and second season feel like a complete work, but setting elements in place to go forward with additional seasons if they are green - lit . While most of the story for the second season had been decided before the first season aired, the Duffers took in the audience reactions from the first season to adjust some of the details within the second season . They knew they would not have the same element of audience surprise as when the show aired anew, and were aware fans wanted to see certain elements, but Ross said "...the point is not to give everyone what they think they want . Because I don't think they really know what they want ." The Duffers felt that the second season should be treated more as a sequel rather than a continuation, and thus have opted to call the second Stranger Things 2 . This approach had some trepidation from Netflix, since the company felt movie sequels typically have a bad reputation, but the Duffers pointed out that there had been many successful sequels that surpassed the original film, and felt confident with this name . Despite revealing episode titles for the season in the announcement teaser in order "to provide some hint of where we were going in season two without giving anything away," Matt Duffer stated that some of the titles would change, since there were some things "we didn't want to put on there because we felt like it would give too much away," and because "people are smart on the fucking internet" with fan - created "videos analyzing the chapter titles...right on a lot" of how the titles related to the plot of the season . In early October 2017, the Duffers revealed the final titles for the first six episodes of the season . </P> <P> Levy noted in November 2016 that he and the Duffer Brothers had already begun planning a potential third season, saying, "We are not gonna be caught off guard and we don't wanna be making stuff up like the day before we have to write it and make it, so we are definitely optimistic and we have started thinking ahead ." The Duffers anticipate having about four to five seasons to work with, but do want to "have a really finite ending" while the show is still at a height of success, according to Matt, rather than letting it draw out indefinitely . In August 2017, the Duffers confirmed there would be a third season, with the likelihood of one more season following that, with Ross saying, "We're thinking it will be a four - season thing and then out". However, executive producer Shawn Levy later suggested that either four or five total seasons were possibilities, claiming that "the truth is we're definitely going four seasons and there's very much the possibility of a fifth . Beyond that, it becomes I think very unlikely ." Matt Duffer later commented that no official decision has been made, claiming that "It's hard, like four seems short, five seems long . So I don't know what to do ." In December 2017, Netflix officially confirmed that they have greenlit the third season . Later that month, David Harbour said that the Duffers were still writing episodes for the season, and did not expect the season would release until 2019 . </P> <P> The idea of Stranger Things started with how the brothers felt they could take the concept of the 2013 film Prisoners, detailing the moral struggles a father goes through when his daughter is kidnapped, and expand it out over eight or so hours in a serialized television approach . As they focused on the missing child aspect of the story, they wanted to introduce the idea of "childlike sensibilities" they could offer, and toyed around with the idea of a monster that could consume humans . The brothers thought the combination of these things "was the best thing ever". To introduce this monster into the narrative, they considered "bizarre experiments we had read about taking place in the Cold War" such as Project MKUltra, which gave a way to ground the monster's existence in science rather than something spiritual . This also helped them to decide on using 1983 as the time period, as it was a year before the film Red Dawn came out, which focused on Cold War paranoia . Subsequently, they were able to use all their own personal inspirations from the 1980s, the decade they were born, as elements of the series, crafting it in the realm of science fiction and horror . The Duffer Brothers have cited as influence for the show (among others): Stephen King novels; films produced by Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas and Guillermo del Toro; films such as Alien and Stand by Me; Japanese anime such as Akira and Elfen Lied; and video games such as Silent Hill, The Last of Us, and Dark Souls . The Duffers also believe that they may have brought influences from other works unintentionally, including Beyond the Black Rainbow and D.A.R.Y.L., discovered by reviewing fan feedback on the show . </P> <P> With Netflix as the platform, the Duffer Brothers were not limited to a typical 22 - episode format, opting for the eight - episode approach . They had been concerned that a 22 - episode season on broadcast television would be difficult to "tell a cinematic story" with that many episodes . Eight episodes allowed them to give time to characterization in addition to narrative development; if they had less time available, they would have had to remain committed to telling a horror film as soon as the monster was introduced and abandon the characterization . Within the eight episodes, the brothers aimed to make the first season "feel like a big movie" with all the major plot lines completed so that "the audience feels satisfied", but left enough unresolved to indicate "there's a bigger mythology, and there's a lot of dangling threads at the end", something that could be explored in further seasons if Netflix opted to create more . </P>

Where did they get the idea for stranger things