Stranger Things‘ new spinoff, Tales From ’85, is set between the main show’s second and third seasons. It’s barely a month since we left Hawkins, and Netflix is already preparing viewers to return for a thrilling animated spinoff. Netflix recently dropped the first trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, confirming it will debut on April 23. We don’t yet know how new monsters will appear from the Upside Down, but the showrunners have teased that they’ve identified an important gap in the original series’ narrative.
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Speaking to Empire Magazine, showrunner Eric Robles has stressed that this will feel like a straightforward cotinuation, albeit in a different medium. “You could easily take this and make it the live-action version,” he explained. “We wanted to go back to Hawkins and feel like a lost season.” Expect the stakes to be lower, because it’s a story about “when the kids weren’t trying to save the world — they were just trying to save the town.”
Winter Is An Important Part of the Stranger Things Spinoff’s Narrative
According to Robles, the Stranger Things spinoff has been set in winter because that fits with the mysterious new monster. “It’s winter time in Hawkins,” he explained. “The whole town’s covered in this ocean of snow. And that brings new dangers. I’m a huge fan of Jaws and this became our version.” That fits with footage in the trailers, which includes a scene of the monstrous creatures moving through the snow like a shark through water. The burrowing disturbs the snow in a visually impressive effect, akin to the shark’s fin showing above the water.
What is interesting, though, is that Empire‘s description suggests there is actually just the one monster. This contrasts with the Tales From ’85 trailer, which suggests there are at least four different creatures. The most likely explanation is that this is an evolving creature, akin to the growth of Demogorgons that we learned about in Season 2. Some have theorized the monster is a Vine Blight, a Dungeons & Dragons monster that affects all plant-life in an area, perhaps crossed with a Bodytaker Plant that has a hive mind all of its own. That would explain the different appearances.
One thing’s for sure; Netflix has no intention of letting Season 5 be the end of Stranger Things. This animated spinoff is coming out at impressive speed, and Netflix has already confirmed another Stranger Things spinoff – one based on the events of The First Shadow, the Broadway play that proved essential backstory for the series finale. It makes sense that we’re getting further tales slotted neatly into the Stranger Things timeline, and hopefully future shows will continue to expand the world a little more.
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