For the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things,” creators Matt and Ross Duffer (as they explained in interviews for Variety’s Oct. 15 cover story) did not want to leave any major plot threads or character arcs unfinished. “We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down and Hawkins and these characters,” Matt Duffer said. “This is a complete story. It’s done.”
That kind of definitive statement only makes the Duffers’ plans for a “Stranger Things” spinoff show — first announced in summer 2022 after the release of “Stranger Things 4″ — more intriguing, because whatever the spinoff is, it won’t continue the story of any of the show’s characters. Nor do the brothers expect it to explore a larger narrative within the world of the first show, like the “Star Wars” TV series have been doing on Disney+.
“It’s so different than something like ‘Star Wars,’” Matt said. “It doesn’t really work like that.” Instead, the spinoff will be part of the show’s “brand” and “style of storytelling” — “kids, adventures, sci-fi/fantasy, rather than increasingly expand what could become an insanely convoluted mythology.”
With the main spinoff idea, as well as any future ones, Ross said: “They’re going to live in a bit of a different world. There’s going to be connective tissue, but you’re almost anthologizing in a way. Because we’re not ‘Star Wars.’ We can’t be like, ‘Oh, now we’re on this planet.’”
“You’re just too boxed in,” Matt added. “It starts to get frustrating from a storytelling perspective.”
The Duffers have developed the spinoff while working on “Stranger Things 5,” and the process “has been so fun,” Matt said. “You’re starting with new characters — it’s like clean slate. You’re not tied up into any knots. There’s something refreshing about it.
“The hope is you’re not just doing something to just do it,” he continued. “And Netflix has been surprisingly patient, although I think now, I feel that patience wearing thin a little bit with the show coming to an end. But they’re understanding.”
The Duffers will create the spinoff series, and will be “heavily creatively involved,” Ross said, and “helping shepherd it along” — but they won’t be its showrunners, as they launch their next era as filmmakers with their new Paramount deal. “We’ll, hopefully, be writing and directing something new in the meantime.”
When asked about the spinoff in an interview, Netflix’s chief creative officer Bela Bajaria jumped in to ask, “Ooh, what did they say?” She said she knows the Duffers want to do “the show and title justice,” and “it’s not just the idea of doing another one.”
The Duffers have been keeping the concept for the new series a secret. “They’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Bajaria said. “So I’m excited about what it’s going to be, but I don’t know what that is yet!”
While there doesn’t appear to be a timeline for the spinoff, Bajaria said with a laugh, “I’d always love more ‘Stranger Things.’ When they’re ready, we’ll be ready.”
In truth, Netflix and the Duffers are already well underway with more “Stranger Things”: The animated offshoot “Stranger Things: Tales From ’85,” developed by showrunner Eric Robles (who created the Nickelodeon series “Fanboy & Chum Chum”), was presented at the Annecy Animation Festival in June. That series was the Duffers’ idea, Matt said, “because we grew up loving some of the cartoons that were based on movies that we love, like ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Ghostbusters.’” They envisioned capturing the “throwback” spirit of those shows “in a more modern way” — similar to the live-action series’ embrace of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King films from the 1980s.
The show has no release date yet; when they spoke with Variety, the Duffers had seen one complete episode. Robles “knocked it out of the park,” Matt said. “It really feels like the show.” The animation style is similar to Netflix’s Emmy-winning series “Arcane,” but “not as expensive as ‘Arcane,’ added Ross.
“And it’s nice, because the kids can stay young forever,” Matt said. “We set it when they’re that perfect Season 2 age.”
Should “Tales from ’85” or the spinoff series prove successful, then “Stranger Things” could live on for quite some time on Netflix.
Shawn Levy, an executive producer and director of the mothership show, will also be involved in whatever comes next. “I’m excited to extend the storytelling life of ‘Stranger Things’ — I’m not going to call it a ‘universe,’ because that would be obnoxious,” he said. He then paused. “The ‘STU’? Too soon? Shit, I know you’re going to use that!”
What the extended universe of “Stranger Things” will be known as does seem to be a matter of debate. “What do you call it that’s not lame — a universe? A franchise?” Matt asked rhetorically. “We need something else.”
“The ‘Strangerverse’?” Ross suggested. “I don’t know.”
