The Duffer Brothers developedStranger Things as a mix of investigative drama and supernatural elements portrayed with horror and childlike sensibilities, while infusing references to the popular culture of the 1980s. Several thematic and directorial elements were inspired by the works ofSteven Spielberg,John Carpenter,David Lynch,Stephen King,Wes Craven,H. P. Lovecraft andFromSoftware. They also took inspiration from experiments conducted during theCold War andconspiracy theories involving secret government programs.
Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins,Indiana, in the1980s. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for theUnited States Department of Energy but also secretly experiments with the paranormal and supernatural, sometimes with human test subjects. They have inadvertently created a portal to an alternate dimension they refer to as the Upside Down, whose presence begins to affect the residents of Hawkins in unusual ways.[11][12]
Thefirst season begins in November 1983 whenWill Byers is abducted by a creature from the Upside Down. His motherJoyce, Police ChiefJim Hopper, and a group of volunteers search for him. A youngpsychokinetic girl namedEleven escapes from the laboratory and is found by friends of Will. Eleven befriends and assists them in their efforts to find Will.[13]
Thesecond season is set eleven months later, in October 1984. Will has been rescued, but he begins having premonitions of the fall of Hawkins caused by a creature in the Upside Down. When it is discovered that Will is still being possessed by an entity from the Upside Down, his friends and family learn that there is a larger threat to their world.[14]
Thethird season is set nine months later, in the days leading up to theFourth of July celebration in 1985. The new Starcourt Mall has become the center of attention for Hawkins residents, putting the majority of other local stores out of business due to the mall's popularity. Hopper becomes increasingly concerned about the relationship between Eleven, whom he has adopted, andMike Wheeler, a leader of local kids, and becomes very protective of his daughter. Unbeknownst to the town, a secretSoviet laboratory underneath Starcourt seeks to open the gateway to the Upside Down. Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer uses mind control to make Billy do his bidding.[15][16]
Thefourth season is set eight months later, in March 1986. Joyce, Will, Eleven, and Jonathan have moved to Lenora,California, for a fresh start. In California, Eleven struggles with the loss of her powers and being bullied in school. Meanwhile, in Hawkins, a being from the Upside Down—an entity later dubbedVecna—begins killing the residents of Hawkins, opening new gates between the two worlds in the process. Planning to stop Vecna, Dr. Sam Owens takes Eleven to a facility to help her regain her powers. Simultaneously, Joyce and Murray Bauman fly to Russia to rescue Hopper from theGulag inKamchatka.
Thefifth and final season is set in the fall of 1987. The group seeks to find and kill Vecna after the Rifts opened in Hawkins. The mission becomes complicated when the military sets up shop in Hawkins and begins hunting Eleven. Near the anniversary of Will's disappearance, the group must stay together one last time for the final battle and face something more powerful and deadly than ever before.
Winona Ryder asJoyce Byers,[17] the mother of Will and Jonathan Byers. She is divorced from their father, Lonnie Byers. In season two, she dates her old high school classmate, Bob Newby, who is later killed by the demo-dogs. She and Hopper have feelings for each other.
David Harbour asJim Hopper,[17] the chief of Hawkins Police Department. After his young daughter Sara died of cancer, Hopper divorced and lapsed into alcoholism. He becomes more responsible, saving Will Byers after he is taken in season 1, and adopting Eleven as his daughter. He and Joyce have feelings for each other.
Finn Wolfhard asMike Wheeler,[18] middle child and the only son of Karen and Ted Wheeler, brother of Nancy and Holly, and one of Will Byers's three close friends. He is an intelligent and conscientious student and is committed to his friends. He develops romantic feelings for Eleven and later dates her.
Millie Bobby Brown asEleven / Jane Hopper ("El"),[18] a girl withtelepathic andpsychokinetic abilities as a result of being one of Dr. Brenner's subjects from Hawkins National Laboratory. She escapes the lab and eventually becomes an adoptive daughter to Jim Hopper and takes his surname, and adjusts to living a normal life with the help of Mike (whom she later dates) and his friends.
Gaten Matarazzo asDustin Henderson,[18] one of Will Byers's friends. Hiscleidocranial dysplasia causes him tolisp. In the second season, he is proud of his new front teeth and is attracted to Max. In season 3, he gets a girlfriend, Suzie (portrayed byGabriella Pizzolo), whom he met at Camp Know Where prior to the start of the season.
Caleb McLaughlin asLucas Sinclair,[18] one of Will's friends. He is wary of Eleven but later befriends her. In season two, he is one of Max's love interests and eventually becomes her boyfriend in season three. He becomes more popular in season 4 as a result of joining the Hawkins High basketball team, which briefly puts him at odds with his regular friend group.
Natalia Dyer asNancy Wheeler,[18] daughter of Karen and Ted and older sister of Mike and Holly. Studious and rule-abiding, Nancy finds another side of herself while investigating the Hawkins Lab and the death of her friend Barbara. In the first two seasons, she is the girlfriend of Steve Harrington but breaks up with him and then dates Jonathan Byers. She is an aspiring journalist.
Charlie Heaton asJonathan Byers,[18] the older brother of Will Byers and the son of Joyce Byers. He is a quiet and kind-hearted teenager, an outsider at school, and an aspiring photographer. He is close with his mother and brother, and he becomes the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler.
Matthew Modine asMartin Brenner (seasons 1 and 4; recurring: season 2),[20] the scientist in charge of Hawkins Laboratory and training Eleven. Manipulative and remote, he and his team are searching for Eleven in season 1 after she escapes. He is referred to as "Papa" by Eleven. In season 4, he returns to help Eleven gain her powers back and protects her from the government agents hunting her down.[21]
Noah Schnapp asWill Byers (season 2–present; recurring: season 1),[18] the son of Joyce Byers and younger brother of Jonathan Byers. He is captured by a monster from the "Upside Down", an alternate dimension discovered by Hawkins Laboratory scientists in season 1. He later develops a connection to the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer due to his capture.[22][23]
Sadie Sink asMax Mayfield (season 2–present), Billy's younger stepsister, and atomboy who catches the attention of both Lucas and Dustin, eventually dating Lucas. In season 4, she becomes one of the teens who is targeted by Vecna, ultimately fighting him and ending up in a coma.[23]
Joe Keery asSteve Harrington (season 2–present; recurring: season 1), a popular high school student and the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler. He ostracizes Jonathan Byers but later comes to befriend him. He and Nancy later break up in season two but remain friends. He is known as the "babysitter" of the group since he is often left to look after the kids, particularly Dustin who he forms a rapport with.[24][23]
Dacre Montgomery asBilly Hargrove (seasons 2–3; guest: season 4), Max's violent, unpredictable, and abusive older stepbrother. He challenges Steve's popularity. In season 3, he is controlled by the Mind Flayer and dies in the process.[23]
Sean Astin asBob Newby (season 2), a former schoolmate of Joyce and Hopper who runs the HawkinsRadioShack[25] and is Joyce's boyfriend, putting him at odds with Hopper. He dies at the end of season 2 after being attacked by Demodogs while helping Joyce.[26]
Paul Reiser asSam Owens (seasons 2 and 4; guest: season 3), a Department of Energy executive who replaces Brenner as director of Hawkins Laboratory. He is stubborn and committed to scientific research, yet empathetic to the residents of Hawkins and helps Hopper adopt Eleven as his legal daughter. He returns with Brenner in season 4 to help Eleven gain back her powers and protects her from the government agents hunting her.[25]
Maya Hawke asRobin Buckley (season 3–present), a girl who works alongside Steve at the ice cream store in the mall who later comes out as a lesbian. She and Steve Harrington are close friends, having worked together at the Scoops Ahoy ice cream shop and later the video store.[27]
Priah Ferguson asErica Sinclair (season 3–present; recurring: season 2), Lucas's 10-year-old sister who helps the group. She is revealed to be very smart and has an avid interest in D&D.[27]
Brett Gelman asMurray Bauman (season 4; recurring: seasons 2–3), a conspiracy theorist, private investigator, and longtime friend of Hopper's who helps Nancy and Jonathan in season 2 and Hopper and Joyce in seasons 3 and 4.
Jamie Campbell Bower asHenry Creel / One / Vecna (seasons 4–present), a murderous psychic being from the Upside Down. He was born as a human named Henry Creel with supernatural abilities. After murdering his family and falling into a coma, he was put under the care of Dr. Brenner. Flashbacks in season 4 reveal that he was sent to the Upside Down by Eleven when she was eight years old, where he was disfigured by lightning, causing his appearance as Vecna. After exploring the Upside Down, he took control of the dimension.[28]
Ross (left) and Matt Duffer, the creators and showrunners of the series
Stranger Things was created by Matt and Ross Duffer, known professionally asthe Duffer Brothers,[30] who also serve asshowrunners andhead writers and direct many of the episodes. They wrote and produced their 2015 filmHidden, in which they emulated the style ofM. Night Shyamalan. However, due to changes atWarner Bros., its distributor, it did not see wide release and the Duffers were unsure of their future.[31] To their surprise, television producerDonald De Line approached them, impressed withHidden's script, and offered them the opportunity to work on episodes ofWayward Pines with Shyamalan. The brothers were mentored by Shyamalan during the episode's production so that when they finished, they felt they were ready to produce their own television series.[32]
The Duffers prepared a script[when?] similar to the series' eventual pilot episode, along with a 20-pagepitch book to help shop the series to networks.[33] They pitched the story to about 15 cable networks,[34] all of whom felt a plot with children as leading characters would not work and asked the brothers to either make it a children's series or drop the children and focus on Hopper's investigation into the paranormal.[32]
In early 2015, Dan Cohen, the VP of21 Laps Entertainment, brought the script to his colleagueShawn Levy. They subsequently invited the Duffer Brothers to their office and purchased the rights for the series, giving the brothers full authorship. After reading the pilot, the streaming serviceNetflix purchased the whole season for an undisclosed sum,[35] and in April of the same year, the series was announced for a 2016 release.[36]
The Duffer Brothers stated that at the time they pitched to Netflix, the company had already been recognized for its original programming in shows such asHouse of Cards andOrange Is the New Black, with well-recognized producers behind them, and were ready to start giving upcoming producers like them a chance.[33] The brothers started casting and brought Levy and Cohen in as the other executive producers to discuss storylines, with Levy also directing for the show.[37]
Montauk is an eight-hour sci-fi horror epic. Set in Long Island in 1980 and inspired by the supernatural classics of that era, we explore the crossroads where the ordinary meet the extraordinary...emotional, cinematic and rooted in character,Montauk is a love letter to the golden age of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King – a marriage of human drama and supernatural fear.
— The Duffer Brothers' original pitch forMontauk[38]
The book cover the Duffer Brothers created to pitchMontauk. For this, they took inspiration fromStephen King book covers such asFirestarter.
The series was originally known asMontauk. The setting was thenMontauk, New York, and nearbyLong Island locations. Montauk figured into a number of real worldconspiracy theories involvingsecret government experiments.[36][39] The brothers had chosen Montauk as it had further Spielberg ties with the filmJaws, where Montauk was used for the fictional setting of Amity Island.[40] After deciding to change the narrative of the series to take place in the fictional town of Hawkins instead, the brothers felt they could now do things to the town, such as placing it under quarantine, that they really could not envision with a real location.[40]
With the change in location, they had to come up with a new title for the series under direction from Netflix's Ted Sarandos so that they could start marketing it to the public. The brothers started by using a copy of Stephen King'sFirestarter novel to consider the title's font and appearance, and came up with a long list of potential alternatives.Stranger Things came about as it sounded similar to another King novel,Needful Things, though Matt noted they still had a "lot of heated arguments" over this final title.[41]
The idea ofStranger Things started with how the brothers felt they could take the concept of the 2013 filmPrisoners, detailing the moral struggles a father goes through when his daughter is kidnapped, and expand it out over eight or so hours in a serialized television approach. As they focused on the missing child aspect of the story, they wanted to introduce the idea of "childlike sensibilities" they could offer, and toyed around with the idea of a monster that could consume humans. The brothers thought the combination of these things "was the best thing ever".[32]
To introduce this monster into the narrative, they considered "bizarre experiments we had read about taking place in the Cold War" such asProject MKUltra, which gave a way to ground the monster's existence in science rather than something spiritual. This also helped them to decide on using 1983 as the time period, as it was a year before the filmRed Dawn came out, which focused on Cold War paranoia.[32] Subsequently, they were able to use all their own personal inspirations from the 1980s, the decade in which they were born, as elements of the series,[32][42] crafting it in the realm ofscience fiction andhorror.[43]
With Netflix as the platform, the Duffer Brothers were not limited to a typical 22-episode format, opting for the eight-episode approach. They had been concerned that a 22-episode season on broadcast television would be difficult to "tell a cinematic story" with that many episodes. Eight episodes allowed them to give time to characterization in addition to narrative development; if they had less time available, they would have had to remain committed to telling a horror film as soon as the monster was introduced and abandon the characterization.[33] Within the eight episodes, the brothers aimed to make the first season "feel like a big movie" with all the major plot lines completed so that "the audience feels satisfied", but left enough unresolved to indicate "there's a bigger mythology, and there's a lot of dangling threads at the end", something that could be explored in further seasons if Netflix opted to create more.[56]
Regarding writing for the children characters of the series, the Duffer Brothers considered themselves as outcasts from other students while in high school and thus found it easy to write for Mike and his friends, and particularly for Barb.[41] Joyce was fashioned afterRichard Dreyfuss' character Roy Neary inClose Encounters of the Third Kind, as she appears "absolutely bonkers" to everyone else as she tries to find Will.[57]
Casting
The Duffer Brothers castDavid Harbour as Chief Hopper believing this was his opportunity to portray a lead character.
In June 2015, it was announced thatWinona Ryder andDavid Harbour had joined the series as Joyce and as the unnamed chief of police, respectively.[17] Ryder's sole condition to the Duffers in accepting the part was that, if aBeetlejuice sequel ever materialized as she andTim Burton had been discussing since 2000, they had to let her take a break to shoot it, a condition the Duffers agreed and ultimately proved to work out whenBeetlejuice Beetlejuice was greenlighted.[58] The brothers' casting director Carmen Cuba had suggested Ryder for the role of Joyce, which the two were immediately drawn to because of her predominance in the films of the 1980s.[32]
Levy believed Ryder could "wretch up the emotional urgency and yet find layers and nuance and different sides of [Joyce]". Ryder praised that the show's multiple storylines required her to act for Joyce as if "she's out of her mind, but she's actually kind of onto something", and that the producers had faith she could pull off the difficult role.[59] The Duffer Brothers had been interested in Harbour before, who untilStranger Things primarily had smaller roles as villainous characters, and they felt that he had been "waiting too long for this opportunity" to play a lead, while Harbour himself was thrilled by the script and the chance to play "a broken, flawed, anti-hero character".[41][60]
Actors auditioning for the children roles read lines fromStand by Me.[32] The Duffer Brothers estimated they went through about a thousand different child actors for the roles. They noted that Wolfhard was already "a movie buff" of the films from the 1980s period and easily filled the role, while they found Matarazzo's audition to be much more authentic than most of the other audition tapes, and selected him after a single viewing of his audition tape.[33]
As casting was started immediately after Netflix greenlit the show, and prior to the scripts being fully completed, this allowed some of the actors' takes on the roles to reflect into the script. The casting of the young actors for Will and his friends had been done just after the first script was completed, and subsequent scripts incorporated aspects from these actors.[56] The brothers said Modine provided significant input on the character of Dr. Brenner, whom they had not really fleshed out before as they considered him the hardest character to write for given his limited appearances within the narrative.[57]
The brothers had desired to film the series around theLong Island area to match the initial Montauk concept. However, with filming scheduled to take place in November 2015, it was difficult to shoot in Long Island in the cold weather, and the production started scouting locations in and around theAtlanta, Georgia, area. The brothers, who grew up in North Carolina, found many places that reminded them of their own childhoods in that area, and felt the area would work well with the narrative shift to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.[40]
Filming for the first season began in November 2015 and was extensively done in Atlanta, Georgia, with the Duffer Brothers and Levy handling the direction of individual episodes.[63]Jackson served as the basis of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.[64][65] Other shooting locations included theGeorgia Mental Health Institute as the Hawkins National Laboratory site,Bellwood Quarry, andPatrick Henry High School inStockbridge, Georgia, for the middle and high school scenes.[66]
After the third season finished filming, producers considered the idea of keeping the Starcourt Mall set as a permanent attraction for fans to visit, but ultimately decided against it.[69]
The fourth season was expected to consist of eight episodes, with the first episode titled "Chapter One: The Hellfire Club".[70] Filming for the season was slated to begin in January 2020 and to last through August.[71] With the release of a February 2020 teaser for the fourth season, the Duffers confirmed that production had started.[72] Some filming for the fourth season took place atLukiškės Prison and nearby inVilnius, Lithuania.[73] In March 2020, production was stopped due to theCOVID-19 pandemic,[74] and resumed that September.[75]
Filming for the fifth and final season was expected to start in June 2023,[76] before the2023 Writers Guild of America strike delayed it to January 8, 2024.[77] Production began on that day and wrapped on December 20.[78]
Visual effects
To create the aged effect for the series, afilm grain was added over the footage, which was captured by scanning in film stock from the 1980s.[57] The Duffer Brothers wanted to scare the audience, but not to necessarily make the series violent or gory, following in line with how the 1980sAmblin Entertainment films drove the creation of thePG-13 movie rating. They said such films were "much more about mood and atmosphere and suspense and dread than they are about gore", though they were not afraid to push into more scary elements, particularly towards the end of the first season.[57]
The brothers had wanted to avoid anycomputer-generated effects for the monster and other parts of the series and stay withpractical effects, so they created an animatronic to play the part of the Demogorgon.[79][80] However, the six-month filming time left them little time to plan out and test practical effects rigs for some of the shots. They went with a middle ground of using constructed props including one for the monster whenever they could, but for other shots, such as when the monster bursts through a wall, they opted to use digital effects. Post-production on the first season was completed the week before it was released to Netflix.[32]
The title sequence uses closeups of the letters in theStranger Things title with a red tint against a black background as they slide into place within the title. The sequence was created by the studio Imaginary Forces, formerly part ofR/GA, led by creative director Michelle Doughtey.[81] Levy introduced the studio to the Duffer Brothers, who explained their vision of the 1980s-inspired series, which helped the studio to fix the concept the producers wanted. Later, but prior to filming, the producers sent Imaginary Forces the pilot script, the synth-heavy background music for the titles, as well as the various book covers from King and other authors that they had used to establish the title and imagery, and were looking for a similar approach for the series' titles, primarily using a typographical sequence.[82]
They took inspiration from several title sequences of works from the 1980s that were previously designed by Richard Greenberg under R/GA, such asAltered States andThe Dead Zone. They also got input from Dan Perri, who worked on the title credits of several 1980s films. Various iterations included having letters vanish, to reflect the "missing" theme of the series, and having letters cast shadows on others, alluding to the mysteries, before settling into the sliding letters. The studio began working on the title sequence before filming, and took about a month off during the filming process to let the producers get immersed in the series and come back with more input.[82]
Initially they had been working with various fonts for the title and used close-ups of the best features of these fonts, but near the end the producers wanted to work withITC Benguiat, requiring them to rework those shots. The final sequence is fully computer generated, but they took inspiration from testing some practical effects, such as using Kodalith masks as would have been done in the 1980s, to develop the appropriate filters for the rendering software. The individual episode title cards used a "fly through" approach, similar to the filmBullitt, which the producers had suggested to the studio.[82]
Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon of the electronic bandSurvive have composed the original soundtrack for the show, including the show's theme song.[83] It makes extensive use ofsynthesizers in homage to 1980s artists and film composers includingJean-Michel Jarre,Tangerine Dream,Vangelis,Goblin,John Carpenter,Giorgio Moroder, andFabio Frizzi.[84] According to Stein and Dixon, the Duffer Brothers had been fans of Survive's music since the 2014 filmThe Guest.[83][85][86] Once the series was green-lit, the Duffer Brothers contacted Survive around July 2015 to ask if they were still doing music; the two provided the production team with dozens of songs from their band's past to gain their interest, helping to land them the role.[83]
Soundtracks containing separately the original compositions and the licensed music for each season have been released byLakeshore Records.
Release
The first season consisted of eight one-hour-long episodes which were released worldwide on Netflix on July 15, 2016,[92] inUltra HD4K. The second season, consisting of nine episodes, was released on October 27, 2017, in HDR.[93][94] The third season once again consists of eight episodes,[95] and was released on July 4, 2019.[96] The fourth season, consisting of nine episodes, was released in two volumes on May 27 and July 1, 2022, respectively.[97] In February 2022, Netflix renewed the series for a fifth and final season.[98] The fifth season premiered its first volume on November 26, 2025; its second volume is slated for released on December 25, 2025, concluding with theseries finale on December 31.[29]
Shortly after the fourth season's release, viewers reported that Will's friends did not acknowledge his birthday in an episode of the season that took place on that day. The Duffers said in an interview that they could rectify the matter by changing its month, which they called "George Lucas-ing the situation", in reference to thecanon changes thatGeorge Lucas had made to the originalStar Wars trilogy to match what the prequel trilogy had added.[99] Some viewers took this to imply that scenes from earlier seasons were also being edited, including one scene where Jonathan takes discreet pictures of a pool party that Steve, Nancy, and Barbara are holding. The writers stated that "no scenes from previous seasons have ever been cut or re-edited", including this scene.[99]
Home media
The first season was released on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack exclusively toTarget retailers on October 17, 2017, and the same for the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack on November 15, 2017, both of which includes vintageCBS-FOX VHS-inspired packaging.[100][101] The second season received a similar release on November 6, 2018.[102][103]
Netflix did not initially reveal subscriber viewership numbers for their original series, andSymphony Technology Group compiled data for the season based on people using software on their phones that measures television viewing by detecting a program's sound. According to Symphony, within the first 35 days of release,Stranger Things averaged ratings of around 14.07million adults between the ages of 18 and 49 in the United States. This made it the third most-watched season of Netflix original content in the U.S. at the time behind the first season ofFuller House andfourth season ofOrange Is the New Black.[104] In a September 2016 analysis, Netflix found thatStranger Things "hooked" viewers by the second episode of the first season, indicating that the second episode was "the first installment that led at least 70 percent of viewers who watched that episode to complete the entire first season of a show".[105]
For the third season, Netflix revealed that the show had broken viewing records for Netflix, with 40.7million households having watched the show in its first four days, and 18.2million already watched the entire series within that timeframe.[106] Within its first month, the third season was watched by 64million households, setting a new record for the most-watched original Netflix series.[107][108]
The series is the most followed TV show on social media appTV Time's history, with over 5 million followers.[109]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season an approval rating of 97% based on 92 reviews and aweighted average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Exciting, heartbreaking, and sometimes scary,Stranger Things acts as an addictive homage toSpielberg films and vintage1980s television."[110]The New York Times has compared the show to Rob Reiner'sStand by Me, relating their nostalgic feel by "...finding that timeless moment where everything seemed tantalizingly, scarily new".[122] Review aggregator Metacritic gave the first season anormalized score of 74 out of 100 based on 142 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[111]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 94% based on 149 reviews and an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Stranger Things' slow-building sophomore season balances moments of humor and a nostalgic sweetness against a growing horror that's all the more effective thanks to the show's full-bodied characters and evocative tone."[112] On Metacritic, the second season has a normalized score of 78 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[113]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season holds an approval rating of 89% based on 140 reviews and an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Vibrant and charming,Stranger Things transforms itself into a riveting—if familiar—summer ride that basks in its neon-laden nostalgia without losing sight of the rich relationships that make the series so endearing."[114] On Metacritic, the third season has a normalized score of 72 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[115]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season has an approval rating of 88% based on 199 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Darker and denser than its predecessors,Stranger Things' fourth chapter sets the stage for the show's final season in typically binge-worthy fashion."[116] On Metacritic, the fourth season received a score of 69 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[117]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the fifth season holds an approval rating of 85% based on 48 reviews. The site's critics consensus states, "Stranger Things plays its cards just right in Season 5, solidifying its pop culture classic status with genuinely captivating genre fare."[118] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 71 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable".[119]
Stranger Things gained a dedicated fan base soon after its release. One area of focus was the character of Barb, Nancy's nerdy friend and classmate who is taken and killed by the monster early in the season.[127] According to actressShannon Purser, Barb "wasn't supposed to be a big deal", and the Duffer Brothers had not gone into great detail about the character since the focus was on finding Will. However, many fans sympathized with the character; Laura Bradley ofVanity Fair suggested that Barb would be a similar misfit in society, and "looks more like someone you might actually meet in real life" compared to the other characters, particularly Nancy. Hashtags grew in popularity after the series' release, such as "#ImWithBarb" and "#JusticeforBarb", and several fan sites and forums were created to support her.[128]
Purser did not return for the second season, but the Duffer Brothers used the real-life "Justice for Barb" movement as inspiration for narrative at the start of the second season: Nancy addresses the fact "that no one ever cares about" Barb.[26] Purser and several media outlets took her nomination as Barb for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in the Primetime Emmy Awards as achieving "Justice for Barb", highlighting how well her character was received.[129][130][131]
Another impact of the series has been an increased demand forEggo waffles, as they are shown to be Eleven's favorite food in several episodes and are seen as a representation of the series.[132] TheKellogg Company manufactures Eggo and had not been part of the production prior to the first season's release, but they recognized the market impact of the series. They provided a vintage 1980s Eggo television advertisement for Netflix to use in itsSuper Bowl LI commercial, and they intend to become more involved with cross-promotion.[133]Coca-Cola released a limited run ofNew Coke (introduced in 1985) to coincide with the third season of the show, which takes place in 1985.[134]
Controversies
In April 2018, filmmaker Charlie Kessler filed a lawsuit against the Duffer Brothers, claiming that they stole his idea behind his short filmMontauk, which featured a similar premise of a missing boy, a nearby military base doing otherworldly experiments, and a monster from another dimension. Kessler directed the film and debuted it at the 2012Hamptons International Film Festival. During theTribeca Film Festival in April 2014, he pitched his film to the Duffer brothers and later gave them "the script, ideas, story and film" for a larger film idea which he calledThe Montauk Project. Kessler contended that the Duffer brothers used his ideas to devise the premise forStranger Things and sought a third of the income that they had made from the series.[135][136]
The Duffer brothers' lawyer stated that they never saw Kessler's film nor spoke to him regarding it, and that Kessler had no input into their concepts forStranger Things.[137] The judge denied summary judgment for the Duffer brothers in April 2019, allowing Kessler's suit to proceed to trial.[138] Just before the trial was due to start in May 2019, Kessler withdrew his lawsuit after hearing the depositions and seeing documents from as early as 2010 which showed him that the Duffers had independently come up with the concept ofStranger Things.[139]
In September 2017, multiple media outlets published articles about a cease-and-desist letter sent by a Netflix in-house attorney to the operator of aStranger-Things-themed bar in Chicago.[143][144] The letter included humorous references to the series: "unless I'm living in the Upside Down"; "we're not going to go full Dr. Brenner on you"; "the demogorgon is not always as forgiving". The letter also won praise from lawyers for its even-handedness in not demanding immediate closure of the bar, only demanding that the bar not remain open without Netflix's permission past its initial scheduled run.[143]
In July 2022, six Jewish and Roma groups condemned the use ofLukiškės Prison as a filming location for the fourth season. Protesters pointed out the prison's involvement inthe Holocaust and its role in thePonary massacre; denounced Netflix's partnering with local tourism board Go Vilnius to rent out a refurbishedStranger Things-themed prison cell onAirbnb; and criticized Netflix's decision to repost images of fans' Eleven-inspirednumerical tattoos on their Instagram, saying it "desecrates the living memories of Holocaust survivors". A petition calling on Netflix to close the rental and apologize garnered more than 60,000 signatures, leading Go Vilnius to shut down the Airbnb listing indefinitely. Multiple news outlets contacted Netflix for comment, but received no response.[145][146][147]
The success of the titular series resulted in a widermultimedia franchise being established, which encompasses the original series, various television spin-offs, astage play, a line of novels and comics, several video games, and extensive licensed merchandise.
United States RepresentativeDavid Cicilline compared the state of the nation during thepresidency of Donald Trump to that ofStranger Things during a speech given in Congress on February 16, 2017, using a sign "Trump Things" in the same format as the title card of the series and saying "Like the main characters inStranger Things, we are now stuck in the Upside Down".[148]
References
^"Stranger Things".Ricardo Diaz - Cinematographer.Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. RetrievedDecember 23, 2021.
^Dyer, John Nugent, Emma Thrower, James White, Owen Williams, James (December 2, 2016)."The Best TV Shows Of 2016".Empire.Archived from the original on August 19, 2019. RetrievedMarch 18, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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