‘Stranger Things’: 10 Things The Duffer Brothers Want You to Know Before Watching the Final Season
Even when Stranger Things comes to an end on Dec. 31, fans of the series will have more action, monsters and mysteries coming their way — spinoff series Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, is set to debut on Netflix in 2026. As fans prepare for the final season, THR asked Ross and Matt if viewers should stay on the lookout for anything in season five that helps set up the animated series. But they can confirm it’s “really completely separate” from the flagship show.
“It takes place between seasons two and three. We like that age of the kids, and that we could pick an age and have them frozen at that age,” Matt says of the upcoming spinoff. “These animated versions of the characters are doing what we wish was possible with our kids, which is that they are frozen in time. That’s really fun, but really is its own thing. We were trying to evoke the feeling of a Saturday morning cartoon.”
He continues, “Ross and I are the ones who initially pitched this idea because we grew up watching The Real Ghostbusters. We’re huge fans of Ghostbusters, but we also love Real Ghostbusters. We love Beetlejuice, but we’re also fans of the Beetlejuice cartoons, so we thought it’d be cool to have something like that for our show. But then it’s also very modern. It’s sort of like the show, where it takes this old school idea and mentality, and then modernizes it and uses new technology. It looks absolutely gorgeous and [showrunner] Eric Robles did a fantastic job. It very much feels like Stranger Things and transports you back to 2018 when that season two came out.”
Set in Hawkins, Indiana, in the winter of 1985, Tales from ’85 sees Eleven and her friends unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town. The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Ej (Elisha) Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will and Brett Gipson as Hopper. Additional voice actors include Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Ross adds of the animated series, “It allows for a younger audience who maybe can’t see the flagship show to be able to enjoy these characters, and then when they get older, they can jump to the show and it all tracks.”
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Season five of Stranger Things will be released in three parts: Volume 1 on Nov. 26 (consisting of four episodes), Volume 2 on Christmas (three episodes) and The Finale on New Year’s Eve. Find everything we know about Stranger Things‘ final season here.
