(Credit: Netflix)

By the time Stranger Things returned for a second season, it was Halloween. As a result, Netflix chose to crank up the horror in multiple ways.

Just when fans thought Demogorgon was the ultimate big bad of the hit sci-fi series, it introduced Demodogs and The Mind Flayer, leaving them at a loss for a defence mechanism. But thanks to Eleven and the tight-knit gang, Hawkins managed to survive four seasons through the fifth.

And as the anticipation for the last ride grows by the minute, the Stranger Things cast is dropping season two secrets following the much-awaited Netflix rewatch, offering viewers an exclusive look at what went on behind the scenes.

While what we saw on the screens can be relived with a recap, the never-heard-before secrets give away the anecdotes and inside jokes that fans can finally relish.

Five Stranger Things season two secrets we never knew

Sadie Sink hit a chord with Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin instantly

Sadie Sink’s arrival as Max Mayfield was a welcome addition in Stranger Things season two. Her chemistry with Dustin and Lucas was a starting point of something very concrete that fans would come to cherish in the upcoming seasons, which actually began when the two invited her for trick-or-treating. But as it turns out, even during the chemistry read during Sink’s audition, the connection was instant.

“We just got to talking, and I was like ‘Oh, we’re just kids at the end of the day.’ It felt right,” Sink says to Tudum. After finishing up her audition, she knew that this had the potential to work out, and in the future, she might be doing that scene with them all over again.

Finn Wolfhard’s weapon request was returned with a candlestick

If we remember correctly, during the conclusion of ‘The Mind Flayer’ episode, everyone from the gang was armed with something or the other, hoping to fight the Demogorgon. But Mike was holding a candlestick. “In this scene, I was like, ‘Everyone has a weapon. Can I have a weapon?’ ” Finn Wolfhard recalls.

He was handed a candlestick from a table near them, which, in turn, became a running jest on the set. “Even this year, when we were talking about weapons, the Duffers were like, ‘Don’t you just want the candlestick again?’ ” he recounts with a laugh.

Winona Ryder didn’t want Bob to die

Bob’s death was one of the worst Stranger Things has seen so far. It left a void so permanent that Sean Austin’s co-star, Winona Ryder, who portrayed his on-screen love interest, couldn’t help but advocate for his life to the Duffer Brothers. “I remember Winona marching around the base camp yelling at the Duffers that they cannot kill Sean off because she loved him so much and she loved working with him,” Noah Schnapp shared.

In fact, he was in the same boat as Ryder because he thought Bob was just the perfect dad for Will.

Joe Keery improvised the scene where he calls Mike “Nancy”

In chapter nine, after suffering from a heavy blow from Billy, Max’s step-brother, for hiding about her whereabouts, when Steve comes to his senses in the trunk of Billy’s car with Max driving it, he mistakes Mike for Nancy. As is revealed by Joe Keery, it was a scene he shouldered the responsibility for improvising.

“I was really kind of beat-up at that point in the show,” he said. But the improv landed rather funnily, hitting with everyone on the set.

Lucas’s memorable scream was actually a joke on the set

In chapter nine, Lucas almost blows an eardrum or two with his high-pitched scream. “It was an iconic scream. I used to do it a lot on set just to have fun,” Caleb McLaughlin explains. But the production team rolled an idea out of it, ultimately putting it to good use in Stranger Things season two.

“I’m like, ‘I can scream that loud. No one can do it.’ They put it in the show and it was great,” he added. And funnily, it really was.