'Stranger Things' reveals Season 2 plot details, where the characters are now

What happens when your show is too popular? That's a perfect question for the team behind Netflix's Stranger Things. In this week's Entertainment Weekly cover story, executive producer Shawn Levy says Season 2 focuses on “quieting the cultural noise that surrounds our show.”

Levy and the show's creators teased Season 2 for EW -- and yes, Barb is still dead.

"We saw a like slug coming out of her throat," Levy reminded CBS. "There’s no coming back from that but I will say her memory and the search for justice for her is a part of season two.”

So, how are the characters faring after their jaunt with the Demagorgon and a deeply rooted conspiracy? Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), for one, feels a bit ill.

“He seems to be seeing images from the Upside Down—the question is whether they’re real or not,” series co-creator Matt Duffer told EW. “So it seems like he’s having some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Also traumatized are the Wheeler siblings; Mike (Finn Wolfhard), who thinks he's lost Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), who has decided to finally care about Barb.

“She and Mike are both the most screwed-up because they’re the ones who both lost someone,” said co-creator Ross Duffer. “They’re both grappling with that, and we see the effects.”

“It’s a balance of the comfort you’re familiar with but then trying to take it in new directions,” Ross Duffer added in another EW piece. “That’s what we’re trying to strike with season 2.”