The Next 'Stranger Things' Spinoff Is a Total Reset — And Not Everyone Will Love That

New Year’s Eve 2025 looked a little different this year. Instead of everyone clinking champagne glasses at midnight, many Stranger Things fans were huddled around their televisions or in movie theaters watching the final episode of the Netflix series.

Creators Matt and Ross Duffer took viewers on an almost 10-year journey in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, where things aren’t exactly what they seem. The nightmares of the Upside Down have finally met demise, including — spoiler alert — the defeat of Vecna. With the Duffer brothers neatly wrapping this story up in its fifth and final season, does it leave room for a spinoff?

Well, the answer is yes, but it will include one element that might upset some fans. The siblings shared with Variety in October 2025 that a spinoff is indeed coming, but with a catch.

“We’re very early days on a live-action spinoff. But this is the end of the story for these characters of Hawkins, for the Upside Down. It’s a different decade and different characters, but of course, still connected to the Stranger Things universe,” Ross explained to The Hollywood Reporter in December 2025. He noted they will be “heavily involved” with the project, but not acting as showrunners as they did with Stranger Things.

Matt added that the new show will be “really more of the style of storytelling” with “a new mythology and new characters.” In the Variety interview, Matt described it as a “clean slate” where they are “not tied up into any knots” in terms of storytelling, which he found “refreshing.”

Ross added, “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.’”

For fans who want more of the current Stranger Things universe, there are a few options. The Stranger Things: The First Shadow prequel play is available to see on the West End in London or on Broadway in New York.

Plus, the animated series, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, will take place between the events of the second and third seasons of Stranger Things. All of the fans’ favorite characters, including Eleven, Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Max, will face new monsters in the Upside Down. It’s scheduled to be released on Netflix in 2026.

So, Stranger Things isn’t gone for good, but it’s taking on a new shape.

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