Don’t expect to see your favorite Hawkins characters return in the Stranger Things spinoff series.
Show creators Matt and Ross Duffer told Variety that they don’t intend to leave behind any significant unfinished plot threads in the upcoming fifth and final season of the hit Netflix show.
Moving forward to the spinoff, they will be introducing new characters rather than revisiting old ones or exploring more of the universe like Star Wars has done with its spinoff films and series.
Keep reading to find out more…
“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,” Matt says about the main series, which will soon wrap with eight episodes.
On the spinoff, Matt clarifies that their intentions are to do something more akin to Stranger Things‘ “brand” and “style” rather than a continuation of the story that will soon be completed.
The new show will focus on “kids, adventures, sci-fi/fantasy, rather than increasingly expand what could become an insanely convoluted mythology.”
Ross chimed in to add, “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 Star Wars. We can’t be like, ‘Oh, now we’re on this planet.’”
“You’re just too boxed in. It starts to get frustrating from a storytelling perspective,” Matt added.
So it sounds like fans might be able to expect some references and easter eggs, maybe even a cameo from a small character, but not much beyond that.
But the Duffer Brothers still aren’t sharing any details about what the new show will be like or what kind of story it will tell.
They will be “heavily creatively involved” with its creation and help “shepherd it along” but they have a new Paramount deal lined up and will not be showrunners on the spinoff series.
The runtimes for the final episodes of Stranger Things were recently revealed!