What Is the Monster in 'Stranger Things' Season 2?

"Stranger Things" season 2 comes out on Netflix on October 27. A giant monster has been seen in the trailers. Is it the Thessalhydra, as teased in a tabletop role-playing game in the last minutes of season one, or is it something else?

Last season, the Demogorgon was the big bad that hunted between our world and the dark dimension known as the Upside Down, threatening everyone living in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. The kids used a Dungeons and Dragons reference to put a name to the threat so as to better understand it, and it seems season two will do the same with its monster - or is it monsters?

Nerdist believes it is no coincidence that the Thessalhydra, a hydra with eight heads that form a ring around a large circular mouth rimmed with jagged teeth, was introduced at the end of last season, albeit merely as a game token in the kids' ongoing role-playing fantasy game.

But in the trailers released by Netflix leading up to the season two premiere this Friday, we see the shape of a very different looking monster, its silhouette hovering in the clouds of an angry red sky. We also see it drawn on a notepad, spider-like, with a head, a body, and four legs with branching feet.

Is this still the Thessalhydra, or is this Shadow Monster something else entirely?

The Shadow Monster is the "Mind Flayer," a creature from Dungeons & Dragons also known as the Illithid. llithids are monstrous humanoid aberrations that look like octopus-headed men, but with psionic powers.

But there are other monsters, too.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last summer, co-creator Ross Duffer (of the Duffer brothers) added that with the doorway opened, we will be seeing much more of the Upside Down, including creatures that live there. This supports the theory that there might be more than one monster coming through.

“We obviously have this gate to another dimension, which is still very much open in the town of Hawkins,” Ross said. “And a lot of questions there in terms of, if the Monster is dead, was it a singular monster? What else could be out there? We really don’t go in there much until they go in to find Will at the end. So we’ve opened up this doorway, and to us it’s exciting

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