This is a great week for fans of Netflix's Stranger Things, as the show is finally set to return after more than a year of hiatus. While Season 2 will bring back all the characters we came to know and love (with a notable exception or two), some new characters are set to be introduced as well. One new face will be that of former Goonies star Sean Astin, who is on board as Radio Shack manager Bob Newby. As the star of a classic 80s movie all about kids on an adventure, his casting on Stranger Things is pretty much perfect. Astin recently revealed what he told the Stranger Things kids on set, saying this:
For me, as an older generation now, coming into an environment where I did exactly what these kids are doing -- and they all know it and they're looking at me like, 'Oh, tell us stories.' I think the only advice that I gave them was just to enjoy yourself. That's so weird. I'm blessed to have a unique point of view and unique perspective on stuff like that. So when I get to it, you know, riding a bike quickly on a set where there's an adventure going on, yeah, that's my wheelhouse, I know that.
While Sean Astin may be best known nowadays for his role as Sam in the Lord of the Rings movies, his breakout role was as Mikey on The Goonies, which is an almost universally beloved movie. There were a lot of similarities between the story of the Stranger Things youngsters -- including a leader by the name of Mike -- and The Goonies in Season 1, and it seemed absolutely ideal that Astin was brought in to play a part in Season 2. His comments to EW indicate that the kids on the cast looked to him for some pearls of wisdom.
Hopefully we'll get to see some scenes of Sean Astin as Bob interacting with the kids. As Bob is Joyce's boyfriend, we'll probably get to see him with Will at some point, and perhaps Jonathan as well. Bob has less of a reason to cross paths with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, but assuming they're all mixed up in the action of the Upside Down and the Shadow Monster, they may end up at the same place at the same time. While we might not get Sean Astin back on a bike channeling his inner Mikey, it should be fun to see him back in the middle of another 1980s adventure.
Luckily, we don't have too much longer to wait before Stranger Things returns to Netflix for Season 2. All nine episodes of the second season will be available on Friday, October 27 at 12:01 a.m. PT. This time around, the monster is bigger, the Upside Down is apparently invading Hawkins, and the characters have a lot of spookiness to deal with. We can count on plenty more 80s references in the second season, not the least of which will be the four boys decked out in Ghostbusters gear for Halloween.
