New season of Stranger Things quietly dropped on Netflix this week without anyone realising

You didn’t think that was it for Hawkins, did you?

Of course not! Now the main show is over, it’s time for the spin-offs, sequels and reboot bit of a TV show’s life to kick into gear.

The first in what Netflix has already promised will be a Stranger Things-iverse is here: Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85.

The ten-part show dropped on the streamer this week, with all 30-minute episodes (fans of the main narrative show will know those runtimes are unheard of) up and running.

With the executive producing powers of the Duffer brothers, the show is set in between the second and third seasons of Stranger Things, in what may be thought of as happier, more innocent pre-Vecna times. 

Perhaps to get around the fact that none of the cast looks that age anymore, this spin-off is entirely animated.

Instead, we have an entirely new cast of actors voicing Mike (Luca Diaz), Dustin (Braxton Quinney), Lucas (Elisha Williams), Will (Benjamin Plessala) and Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Norstedt).

It’s January 1985 and Will has just returned from the Upside Down, after a monster captured him and dragged him to that netherworld lurking underneath Hawkins. Then, Eleven had closed the gate at Hawkins Lab.

The gang, perhaps naively, think their run-ins with the supernatural are a thing of the past. They’re more focused on making friends with Hawkins newbie Nikki (Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion), riding their bikes around town and playing Dungeons and Dragons, as per.

The stakes are fairly low for maybe the first time on Stranger Things, because we know where the characters are about to go next, if you watched the main narrative.

Instead, it’s a way to bottle up the fun, vibes-based side of the show’s success. With a side of strange creatures, of course. But we know our favs will make it out alive (for now…).

Although the kids do have some explaining to do to Nikki, who has been likened to the audience’s point of view by showrunner Eric Robles.

He was tasked by the Duffer brothers with figuring out exactly how monsters would be able to break containment, given the finale of season two, which he said hit him once he did a deep dive into the show and 1980s films.

Want to find out how he got around it? Head over to Netflix.

Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85 is available to stream on Netflix from April 23.

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