Stranger Things Plagiarism Lawsuit Gets Withdrawn

The plagiarism suit filed against Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers was withdrawn by plaintiff Charles Kessler Sunday, Deadline reports.

"After hearing the deposition testimony this week of the legal expert I hired, it is now apparent to me that, whatever I may have believed in the past, my work had nothing to do with the creation of Stranger Things," Keseler said in a statement.

"Documents from 2010 and 2013 prove that the Duffers independently created their show. As a result, I have withdrawn my claim and I will be making no further comment on this matter."

Owners Netflix said in a statement it is "glad to be able to put this baseless lawsuit behind us."

"As we have said all along, Stranger Things is a ground-breaking original creation by The Duffer Brothers," the statement reads. "We are proud of this show and of our friends Matt and Ross, whose artistic vision gave life to Stranger Things, and whose passion, imagination and relentless hard work alongside our talented cast and crew made it a wildly successful, award-winning series beloved by viewers around the world."

The Duffer brothers were set to appear in the expected five-day trial that would have launched Tuesday, May 7 in Los Angeles Superior Court. This shift comes after lawyers in both camps met and Kessler's attorneys "started to stand down on certain issues," Deadline notes.

Kessler originally argued the Duffer brothers lifted the concept after a pitch at a 2018 Tribeca Film Festival party, after which Kessler alleges he gave "the script, ideas, story and film" to the Duffers. Kessler claimed the Duffers lifted from his work, "The Montauk Project," to craft what would become Stranger Things, arguably Netflix's most popular original series.

The Duffer brothers' attorney Alex Kohner previously told Deadline the original claim was "completely meritless."

"He had no connection to the creation or development of Stranger Things," Kohner said in 2018. "The Duffer Brothers have neither seen Mr. Kessler's short film nor discussed any project with him. This is just an attempt to profit from other people's creativity and hard work."

LA Superior Court Judge Michael Stern in April declined to dismiss the case and would let the matter go to trial because the filmmakers had not provided significant evidence of "independent creation" for the show, as both projects centered around a Long Island-set mystery involving a missing boy, an inter dimensional monster, and a military base conducting experiments on kids.

Stranger Things was initially called Montauk before its name changed. Also changed was the setting of Long Island to Hawkins, Indiana.

Deadline also reports Kessler on April 30 requested the court exclude Stranger Things the series from the trial and the jury. "The series was based on the pilot, but the series was written by an army of writers in one of Netflix's writing rooms," the motion reads.

"As such, the series is no longer even Defendants' sole creation, but rather a collaborative work product of writers. Therefore, offering the series into evidence is wholly irrelevant as to whether Defendants' stole Mr. Kessler's ideas from his pitch, and subsequently used them in their pilot."

Netflix debuts Stranger Things Season 3 July 4.

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