Sean Astin's Character Will Be The 'Barb' Of Stranger Things 2

If anyone can fill the shoes (or, in this case, mom jeans) of Barb in the second season of Stranger Things, it might be Bob, the new character played by Sean Astin.

Producer and director Shawn Levy recently told ScreenRant that the actor known for The Goonies and The Lord of the Rings will be the fan favorite that everyone roots for, thanks in part to showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer.

"Sean Astin as Bob is going to be, I'm saying it, but he's kind of going to be the Barb of season 2," Levy said. "His part is substantially bigger. He's in a lot of episodes. He is magnificent. One thing the Duffers do really well is when they see what an actor is capable of, they write to that. They don't make the actor play what's on the page. They often change what's on the page to exploit everything that's unique about that actor. They did it with Steve Harrington last season and this season again they did it big time with Sean Astin, who as Bob, I think is going to be a Barb-level fan favorite."

Not much is known about Astin's character Bob Newby, but it's believed that he'll be a "kindhearted former nerd," the proud owner of a RadioShack franchise, and a high school acquaintance of Joyce (Winona Ryder) and police chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour). Harbour also hinted that Bob will be Hopper's romantic rival for Joyce's affection.

But the Duffer brothers said they didn't intentionally set out to create a character to fill the void of Barb (Emmy nominee Shannon Purser), who met her demise in the first season. "It's hard to know. I mean, we weren't expecting the Barb phenomenon. But I will say he has more lines than Barb. And Sean Astin is, he's one of those guys that he wasn't initially how we were envisioning the role but, once he came on board and once we started seeing what he was doing with his character, he just changed the entire trajectory, really of some of the plot of the show and certainly of that character. He's an incredibly likable guy in real life and then also hopefully in the show."

We'll find out more when Stranger Things 2 hits Netflix on Oct. 27. Until then, check out the untold truth of Stranger Things and everything we know about season 2 so far.