Season 2 of Stranger Things will be dropping a few more nods to the ’80s. Sean Astin and Paul Reiser will now be joining Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Noah Schnapp (Will), and Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven). Linnea Berthelsen will also be joining the cast. Check out the full story below.

According to Variety, Astin will play Bob Newby, a kind-hearted former nerd who went to high school with Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour). The report adds that the character will work as a manager of a Radioshack. Since radio waves played a huge part in finding Will in the Upside Down in Season 1, it’s very likely that the kids will visit the Radioshack. Astin is best known for his role as Mikey in The Goonies and Samwise Gamgee in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

As for Reiser, he will play Dr. Owens. The report says Dr. Owens is “a Department of Energy muckety muck who is tasked with ‘containing’ the events of the previous year.” This has some strange – excuse the pun – echoes of his Carter Burke from Aliens.

Finally, there’s Berthelsen. She will play Roman, an emotionally damaged young woman who suffered a big loss as a kid. The report confirms that she isn’t a Hawkins resident, but she is connected “to all the spooky stuff that happened at the Department of Energy lab during the first season.” It is speculated that she is probably an escapee and most likely went through the same experiments that Eleven suffered through in Season 1.

It should be interesting to see if any of the three newcomers will interact with each other. It’s very likely that they will cross paths with Mike and the gang, but seeing as Season 2 takes place a year after the events of Season 1, we don’t exactly know what has happened in Hawkins, Indiana. Whatever it is, it was enough to get the Department of Energy to send Dr. Owens to contain the situation.

Netflix will launch Season 2 of Stranger Things in 2017.

[Source: Variety]