Billy's Journey On 'Stranger Things' May Only Just Be Getting Started

The second season of everybody's favorite nostalgia machine Stranger Things introduced a few new characters, including Billy, the mulleted lothario who spent most of his time being a jerk seemingly for the sheer joy of being a jerk. So now the people wanna know — will Billy be in Stranger Things Season 3? If he does make a triumphant return, I hope he has a little more to do than pick on his step-sister Max and hit on Mrs. Wheeler.

When Max and Billy first came to town, I was almost positive that there was something deeper going on with them. Why were they so secretive about where they came from? If Billy was so insistent that Max wasn't his sister, who was she? Why did he not want her to hang out with Lucas so aggressively? I was pretty sure that the big reveal was going to be that Max and Billy were spies for Hawkins Lab or part of some other large secret government experiment on children. But it turns out, Billy's just a jerk for more pedestrian reasons than government testing. His dad is an even bigger jerk. Sure that's a little more interesting than just being absolutely terrible for no reason, but it does open up a bit of a story for Billy that doesn't really get a lot of attention.

The character is portrayed by Australian actor Dacre Montgomery, who is eager to show that his character has a little bit more depth than just being mean to people all the time. In an interview with Huffington Post, Montgomery explains that as he got to know more about the character he learned to empathize with him more. "I think he feels threatened," he revealed. "Like I said, these male figures in his life, whether it’s Lucas, Steve, his dad, whoever these different characters that embody his world are ... if Max is that one constant, he knows he needs to drop off and look after [her]." He didn't use the phrase 'toxic masculinity,' but it seems like a good place to add that in here.

While Season 3 of the show has been confirmed, it has not been confirmed who will and who will not be back. I think it's pretty clear that the core group of kids will be returning, hopefully with awkwardly cracking pubescent voices, and obviously Winona Ryder as Will's mom and David Harbour as Hopper. But the future is more unclear for a character like Billy. If he does return, however, Montgomery promises that audiences will learn a lot more about him and why is, well, like he is. "There’s also a far more sinister side to where everything is going through Billy in the future that we’ve only had very small discussions about, aside from his dad and maybe what it has truly turned him into," the actor said in the same Huffington Post interview. "There’s something far more sinister going on with Billy. We’ll see how that unfolds." While this certainly implies that Billy is going to be back, so far it is unconfirmed.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Montgomery revealed that he told the Duffer brothers, "I can't just play bad because nobody's just bad." And that's why they wrote in the particular scene with Billy's dad. If Montgomery does return for Season 3, perhaps he's due for a redemption arc. For his part, the actor also wouldn't mind a love interest of some kind "because that would humanize him even more. To see those qualities come out would show a really different side to him." We'll just have to wait and see if that comes into play in the seasons to come.

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