The kids from Stranger Things are returning to the series a little bit older, a little bit wiser, and apparently a little bit more foulmouthed than before. That’s the word from show creators the Duffer Brothers, who revealed that the kids would be swearing more this season, much to the chagrin of Netflix executives.
Don’t expect Finn Wolfhard to be spewing expletives on the level of his It character Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier. But the language has been taken up a notch and it’s due to the young actors on the show themselves that certain four letter words make an appearance.
“Getting profanity into the show was a big argument,” Matt Duffer said in a wide ranging interview with Wired. “We actually gave in and took out all of the bad language, and the kids got really upset. Then I wrote Netflix saying I’ve got this army of 11- and 12-year-olds and they’re pissed off that we cut all the language. At least let us shoot alternate takes. That was, like, the day before we started shooting. And then Netflix said OK.”
“They’re much more foulmouthed in season two than in season one,” Ross Duffer added. “But in real life it’s far worse. I’m like, I cannot believe that came out of your mouth.”
The Duffers also touched on the unique difficulties inherent in filming with such a large cast of kids in starring roles and watching them literally grow right before their eyes (and the camera lens).
“The scary thing is you’re shooting for half a year and season two takes place over the course of, like, a week,” Matt said. “So you can’t have someone have some major growth spurt. You’ll hear changes in their voice, but you can’t do much about puberty. Except maybe shift the pitch.”
Just like with the kids from Game of Thrones, we’re going to watch Mike, Eleven, Dustin, Lucas, and Will go from children to full on teens… provided they all keep surviving the horrors that are occurring in Hawkins, of course. The timeline is going to be a little shorter, too. While Game of Thrones is ending after eight seasons, the Duffers continue to sound pretty firm about wrapping things up in five seasons max.
Stranger Things 2 premieres on Netflix in full on October 27th.
