By Jackie Shannon
It helped to resuscitate the languishing career of Winona Ryder (FilmInk would like to offer its personal thanks for this), and now Stranger Things – the 1980s-set retro supernatural thriller that upped the cache of streaming service, Netflix, even further – is set to put two more old favourites back on centre stage.
After making an impressive appearance in the Oscar winning Whiplash, 1990s mainstay, Paul Reiser (whose sitcom, Mad About You, was one of the decade’s most popular, while his cracking performance in 1986’s Aliens remains a career high point), has been tapped to play Dr. Owens, a high-ranking member of The Department Of Energy who is sent to Hawkins, Indiana on a “clean-up” assignment, tasked with containing what happened in Sadler Lab in the first series.
An even more striking piece of casting comes in the form of Sean Astin, whose classic 1985 action-adventure, The Goonies, was an obvious influence on the first series of Stranger Things. His Lord Of The Rings standing, meanwhile, will only impress the show’s army of geek fans even more. We’ll always remember him, however, as everybody’s favourite bench warmer in 1993’s Rudy. In what could be perfect casting, Stranger Things will see Astin play Bob Newby, a kind hearted former high school nerd who now manages the local RadioShack.
