Netflix just dropped a bombshell for Stranger Things fans: an animated spinoff titled Stranger Things: Tales From '85 is officially happening. Announced on November 6, 2025, during the annual Stranger Things Day celebration, the computer-generated series will take viewers back to the mid-1980s—years before the Upside Down ever opened in Hawkins, Indiana. Created by Netflix and helmed by showrunner Eric Robles, the project isn’t just another sequel. It’s a love letter to Saturday morning cartoons, with the original kids—Mike, Eleven, Will, Lucas, and Max—facing bizarre new monsters in a world still untouched by government secrets and interdimensional rifts. And here’s the twist: the Duffer Brothers have shut the door on character-driven spinoffs. No Eleven solo series. No Steve and Dustin road trip. Not happening.
Why Animation? Because the '80s Cartoons Never Had Limits
Matt and Ross Duffer didn’t just pick animation because it’s trendy. They picked it because it’s the only way to truly capture the surreal, hand-drawn chaos of He-Man, ThunderCats, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—the shows they grew up with. "With animation there’s really no limits," Ross Duffer said in the teaser. "Eric Robles and his team can just go wild. And they have." That wildness shows in the first images released by IMDb: Eleven with her hair in pigtails, wielding a glowstick like a lightsaber; Mike pedaling his bike past a glowing, jellyfish-like creature that looks like it crawled out of a Land of the Lost episode. It’s not just nostalgia—it’s reimagined.Robles, best known for Fanboy & Chum Chum and Glitch Techs, brings a comedic rhythm to the horror, a balance the Duffers say is crucial. "What we’ve been able to capture is the magic of Hawkins in a new way," Robles told IMDb. That magic isn’t about the Demogorgon or the Mind Flayer. It’s about kids riding bikes at dusk, walkie-talkie codes, and the feeling that something strange is just beyond the tree line. The monsters? They’re original. No recycled villains. No flashbacks to Hawkins Lab. Just pure, unfiltered '80s weirdness.
No Eleven Spinoff? The Duffer Brothers Had a Reason
This is where things get interesting. For months, fans speculated about a Eleven spinoff, maybe following her journey after the events of Season 4. Some even floated the idea of a Steve and Dustin buddy comedy. The Duffers shut all of it down in an October 2025 interview with Elle. "I’ve read these rumors... That’s not interesting to me because we’ve done all that," Matt Duffer said. "We’ve spent I don’t know how many hours exploring all of that. So it’s very different." It’s not that they’re done with the characters. It’s that they’re done repeating them. The original series spent seven years peeling back the layers of trauma, government conspiracy, and adolescent growth. A spinoff centered on Eleven’s past? They already did it—in flashbacks, in lab tapes, in her emotional arc. The Duffers aren’t trying to milk the franchise. They’re trying to expand it sideways.That’s why Tales From '85 feels so fresh. It’s not about what happened. It’s about what could have happened. What if the kids stumbled on a creature before the government even knew about the Upside Down? What if the Hawkins Lab experiment wasn’t the first anomaly? The show doesn’t need Eleven’s powers to be thrilling—it needs her curiosity, her fear, her friendship with Mike. And that’s exactly what the Duffers are banking on.
Will the Original Cast Return?
Don’t expect Millie Bobby Brown to voice Eleven. Or David Harbour to reprise Hopper as a gruff cartoon dad. According to Elle, cameo appearances are "very unlikely." That’s a polite way of saying: no. The voices will be new. The faces will be stylized. The spirit? Still unmistakably Stranger Things.This isn’t a cash grab. It’s a creative experiment. The Duffers, through their production company Upside Down Productions, and 21 Laps Entertainment (Shawn Levy’s outfit), are maintaining tight creative control. Netflix, headquartered in Los Gatos, California, isn’t just funding this—it’s betting big. Stranger Things has been its most valuable IP since its July 15, 2016 debut. Now, with the final season dropping in three parts between November and December 2025, the studio is moving fast to keep the momentum alive.
What This Means for the Franchise
Netflix’s strategy is clear: build a universe, not just a show. Think Game of Thrones with prequels, spinoffs, and video games. Tales From '85 is the first step. If it works, we could see animated specials set in the '70s, or even live-action shorts about Hawkins High’s forgotten teachers. The Duffers aren’t just expanding the world—they’re giving fans a way to live in it without rehashing the past.And here’s the quiet genius: by avoiding direct sequels, they avoid the pitfalls of Star Wars’s sequel fatigue. This isn’t about who’s in charge of the lab. It’s about what it felt like to be a kid in Hawkins before the world ended. That’s timeless. That’s universal. That’s why it’ll work.
What’s Next?
No release date has been announced yet. But given Netflix’s pattern—animated shows often drop in the fall—it’s safe to assume Tales From '85 will arrive sometime in 2026. Production is already underway, with Robles’s team at full steam. And while the final season of Stranger Things will close the main story, this animated series might just be the real beginning of something bigger.Frequently Asked Questions
Will the original actors voice their characters in the animated spinoff?
No, lead or recurring roles for original cast members like Millie Bobby Brown or Finn Wolfhard are "very unlikely," according to the Duffer Brothers. While cameo appearances aren’t ruled out entirely, the animated series will feature a new voice cast to better match the stylized, retro cartoon aesthetic. This decision was made to preserve the fresh tone of the show and avoid audience fatigue from seeing the same faces in a different medium.
Is this spinoff connected to the main series’ plot?
Not directly. Tales From '85 takes place years before the events of Season 1, featuring the same kids but in a world untouched by the Upside Down’s major incursions. There are no Demogorgons, no Mind Flayers, and no Hawkins Lab experiments yet. Instead, the series introduces new, original monsters tied to local legends—think urban myths that could eventually evolve into the horrors of the main series. It’s backstory, not sequel.
Why did the Duffer Brothers reject an Eleven spinoff?
The Duffers feel they’ve already explored Eleven’s origin story exhaustively through flashbacks, lab tapes, and emotional arcs across four seasons. Matt Duffer explicitly said, "We’ve spent I don’t know how many hours exploring all of that." They’re not interested in retreading trauma—they want to expand the world beyond the characters’ personal journeys. This spinoff is about Hawkins as a place, not just about Eleven as a person.
How does this compare to other franchise spinoffs like Game of Thrones?
Unlike House of the Dragon, which is a direct prequel with live-action continuity, Tales From '85 is tonally distinct—a cartoon, not a drama. It mirrors HBO’s strategy of expanding IP through different formats, but with a creative twist: animation allows for surreal, exaggerated storytelling that wouldn’t work in live-action. Netflix is betting that fans will embrace this version of Hawkins the same way they embraced Adventure Time or Avatar: The Last Airbender—as something that feels familiar but wildly new.
When will the final season of Stranger Things air?
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is scheduled for release in three instalments between November and December 2025, according to Digital Spy. This staggered rollout mirrors the approach used for Season 4, allowing Netflix to build hype and sustain viewer engagement through the holiday season. The animated spinoff will follow in 2026, ensuring the franchise remains in the cultural spotlight even after the main series ends.
Who is Eric Robles, and why was he chosen to lead the animated series?
Eric Robles is the creator of Cartoon Network’s Fanboy & Chum Chum and Nickelodeon’s Glitch Techs, known for blending humor, surreal visuals, and heartfelt kid-centric storytelling. The Duffers chose him because he understands how to make the weird feel normal—and how to make kids’ friendships the emotional core of even the strangest adventures. His background in animated comedy gives the spinoff its unique tone: spooky, but never scary; strange, but always sweet.
