Stranger Things

On July 15, 2016, Netflix’s Stranger Things turned the world Upside Down. From the first episode of the Duffer Brothers’ 1980s-set sci-fi/fantasy/horror dramedy, it was an outta-this-world hit with viewers and critics alike, breaking streaming records and earning Primetime Emmy nominations like they were going out of style.

The action kicked off with the disappearance of young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and the arrival in Hawkins, Ind., of a superpowered preteen known only as Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Season 1 culminated in Will’s safe return to mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) and brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Eleven’s defeat of the Demogorgon, a murderous creature from another dimension.

In addition to countless more good-vs.-evil clashes, subsequent seasons scored with the sweet father figure/daughter relationship between Eleven and Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour), the renamed Jane’s first case of puppy love with Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), the unlikely friendship of older teen Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and younger buddy Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), and the playful romance of Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and “Mad Max” Mayfield (Sadie Sink).

In the series’ penultimate season — No. 4 — the audience was introduced to the malevolent Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), whose plans to turn Earth into a hellscape it would be up to our heroes to thwart before the show concluded.

Stranger Things is such a smash that it has spawned tie-in books, novels, comics, video games and a stage play. In 2022, the Duffer brothers admitted to Variety that “we do have an idea for a spinoff that we’re super excited about.” In 2023, Netflix ordered an as-yet-untitled animated series set in the world of Stranger Things.