‘Stranger Things’ Characters We’re Shipping This Season

Last season, there was a dearth of full-on romances. Except for Nancy and Steve, of course. But series creators the Duffer Brothers certainly did a lot of setting up, leaving us desperate for a bunch of flirtations and couples-who-are-so-right-together to come to fruition. Here are the characters we’re shipping in Season 2.

Will and Eleven

In Season 1, Mike definitely had a thing for telekinetic weirdo Eleven. He asked her to the school dance and even kissed her. It kind of left her cold though. She clearly wasn’t feeling Mike, struggling to understand what he meant when he tried to explain why he isn’t like a brother to her. They’re patently better off as friends.

So it would make sense for a fledgling romance to blossom between Eleven and the boy who spent most of the season in the Upside Down, Will. Especially now she’s had a practice kiss and that side of her has been awakened. Will is likely to be forever grateful to Eleven for playing a crucial part in saving him, while she’ll possibly be charmed by this new boy in her life. This, in turn, equates to mutual attraction.

A budding relationship here could also create an interesting love triangle dynamic, with Mike (whisper it) potentially wishing they hadn’t saved their friend Will from the Demogorgon after all.

Hopper and Joyce

Part of us wanted Joyce and Will’s dad Lonnie to get back together early on in Season 1. But after seeing the chemistry between Hopper and Joyce develop as the season wore on, we’re now all over this love affair happening. Plus, it seems highly probable that the pair already have a romantic history to build on. There are even some theories online about Hopper being Will’s real father.

Whatever might be true, Hopper is definitely now heavily invested in the family, having helped save Will from the Upside Down. He is also intent on protecting Joyce and Will going into Season 2 by keeping what happened secret.

Season 2 will reportedly see Joyce dating an old classmate, Bob — which may help Hopper to realise his true feelings for Joyce. She’s not that into Bob, anyway, surely — dating him looks to be a coping mechanism to try and forget what happened and get back to normal.

Nancy and Jonathan

Early in Season 1, it looked like Nancy would dump douchey boyfriend Steve in favour of nice guy Jonathan, Will’s older brother. But as the season progressed and Steve became a more sympathetic character, she elected to stay with the popular boy. To be fair, he did come to realise his friends were bad news and make efforts to extract himself from their influence.

But there’s no denying that Nancy and Jonathan were the better match. And as they spent more and more time together investigating Will’s disappearance, a deep connection grew. Now that the intense events of the first season are over, we’re hoping they’ll explore those feelings in greater depth. Plus, there have been rumours for months that the actors that play the characters, Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer, have been dating in real life.

Come on Duffer brothers, this at least deserves a chance. It makes so much sense.

Troy and James

Remember the two bullies from Season 1? Troy wound up with a broken arm after Eleven attacked him for trying to force Mike to make a suicide jump off a cliff. How about resolving their internal conflicts and bringing Troy and James together? They’re clearly both dealing with something. We want them to stop covering up, come out and declare their true feelings for one another. Putting a stop to their bullying ways in the process.

Dustin and Max

Awww, Dustin. We so want Dustin to find someone to go gooey over. We’d love to see him get starry-eyed over the new girl in Stranger Things next season. And there’s every chance this could happen. Incoming character Max (above right) moves to Hawkins with her family and makes friends with the group. She’s got a bit of a troubled background and loves to skateboard, which no doubt Dustin will think is cool.

Never mind ‘Justice for Barb’, what about ‘Romance for Dustin’?

Barb and the Demogorgon

Yes, we know she’s dead. But in the Upside Down, surely anything’s possible. Perhaps the Demogorgon was just misunderstood and was looking for somebody to love. Enter Barb. OK, so he kidnapped her and killed her, but just maybe there’s some way of resurrecting her so he can make her his undead girlfriend or something.

We’re not suggesting he would hold her against her will. She could be totally into it. Sure, there could be a touch of Stockholm Syndrome about it, but as someone who wasn’t that popular in the regular world, she could well embrace it. And who wouldn’t want to be Queen of the Upside Down anyway? As someone in the office pointed out, she could rule alongside her beau as Barbara Gorgon (sorry not sorry).

As for the Demogorgon himself, well, he could then put a stop to all this nonsense tormenting the people of Hawkins.

Stranger Things Season 2 premieres October 27