The STRANGER THINGS Spinoff Will Focus On Entirely New Characters
Don't expect to see Eleven and co. back in Netflix's hit sci-fi horror series.
As Stranger Things draws closer to its epic fifth and final season, fans are chomping at the bit to know what's next for Netflix's hit sci-fi horror series – there's the Broadway prequel show The First Shadow and an animated series in the works, but it's the previously-announced spinoff that has piqued the most interest. With a vast mythology and huge cast of now-iconic characters established over the course of the last ten(ish) years, the possibilities for continuing the tale of Hawkins and the Upside Down are seemingly endless. But that's not what Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of the record-breaking show, are aiming for.
In a new interview with Variety, the Duffer brothers broke down what's next for the Stranger Things universe, confirming that Eleven, Mike, Hopper et al won't be the focus of any new shows going forward – so don't expect any cliffhangers at the end of Season 5:
“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 […] This is a complete story. It’s done.”
Variety expands on this to mean that the as-of-now untitled spinoff (which will not be showrun by the Duffers, although they will be “heavily creatively involved”) will focus on the show’s “brand” and “style of storytelling”, which, in the Duffers' words, means “kids, adventures, sci-fi/fantasy, rather than increasingly expand what could become an insanely convoluted mythology”. That brings entirely new characters, and a “clean slate”, which Matt Duffer describes as “refreshing”.
The pair goes on to explain why the pair felt it necessary to differentiate Stranger Things from other big media franchises like Star Wars, which have stories spanning a number of different movies and shows:
“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 ‘’ We can’t be like, ‘Oh, now we’re on this planet.’”