Netflix’s “Stranger Things” may have received fewer Emmy nominations for its second season compared to last year’s freshman run, but don’t tell that to the Mind Flayer, the big bad from the show’s sophomore campaign.
TheWrap asked Shawn Levy, executive producer and director, if the Demogorgon — the monster from the first season — could take on the Mind Flayer. “I’m going to go with the Mind Flayer since he’s kind of the uberlord of the Demogorgon,” Levy said. “I gotta think his power is more formidable.”
However, Levy stopped there: “Beyond that I don’t think I can get into the answer without divulging too much.”
Levy’s pick makes sense, considering Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven was able to defeat to Demogorgon in Season 1, while The Mind Flayer was still alive and well, watching over Hawkins Middle School at the end of the second season. Levy’s answer makes it appear possible the monster, after possessing Will’s mind (and body), will be back for more in Season 3.
The show bagged 12 Emmy nominations Thursday morning for its second season — down from the 18 it earned for its debut run — but still got nods for Best Drama and for David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown. Those 12 nominations helped catapult Netflix past HBO with 112 total nominations, breaking the pay cabler’s 17-year streak as the most-nominated network.
Levy admitted the out-of-nowhere success for Season 1 only made their jobs harder the second time around, describing it as “far more daunting, because the burden of expectations was definitely there.”
Levy and the “Stranger Things” crew are currently in the middle of his self-described “fresh hell” of shooting Season 3 in humid, 90-degree Georgian weather (he was driving to the set when he found out about the nominations). And that’s about all he would share. Anything more on Season 3, he said, would get him in trouble.