Here’s How The Stranger Things Spinoff Could Redeem That Disappointing Finale
Could this one winter last forever?
Stranger Things is dead, long live Stranger Things. Netflix’s hit 1980s sci-fi horror series dominated pop culture for almost a decade, but in the last hours of 2025, we watched it all end with a bang, then a whimper, and then a 40-minute epilogue. By the end, some things were wrapped up, like Eleven’s sacrifice and possible survival, while other things were left dangling, like all those pregnant women who were seemingly blown up with the rest of the Upside Down or the fact that Joyce and Hopper went to high school with Henry Creel and just never noticed onscreen.
But the show will live on by doing what it does best: showing a past we’re nostalgic for. Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85 will show new adventures of the Hawkins gang in brilliant animation, but could it replace the show that sparked it? It’s easy to see how it could — but it also could be a huge risk.
Eleven and her friends get toonified in Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85.
The most obvious benefit of Tales from ‘85 is the very form itself. One of the biggest criticisms of Stranger Things was the slow production schedule, meaning the child actors aged much quicker than their characters to the point where they were well into their 20s still playing 17-year-olds. Tales from ‘85 is set in between Seasons 2 and 3, meaning the characters are 14-15 years old. Because the series is animated, these characters can stay this age for as many years — and seasons — as needed.
But there’s also the story implications. We don’t know what happened between Seasons 2 and 3, but it wasn’t enough to change the story in a noticeable way, so this series can’t have super huge stakes. What it can do, however, is deliver something that is is almost synonymous with the 1980s: a monster-of-the-week cartoon where the gang conquers a new villain every episode, with everything returning to the status quo at the end. Of course, this is Netflix, so it’s unlikely these episodes will be weekly, but it could be a love letter to this classic formula.
Could this series be the monster-of-the-week adventure Stranger Things feels made for?
And maybe — just maybe — Tales from ‘85 could retroactively make the series finale make more sense. It doesn’t make sense for Eleven to pull Mike aside and explain that if she ever sacrifices herself she’ll actually be backpacking in Iceland, but there are moments that most characters don’t even know about, like the glowing rock in Henry’s past, that could be relevant.
Stranger Things has always been inspired by the works of Stephen King, maybe this series could be its It: Welcome to Derry, expanding the story without interrupting the story that would come later in the timeline. At the very least, it could borrow the whole “explaining what’s up with that magic rock” thing.
