We’ve known since February that Stranger Things 5 will be our last season with the kids from Hawkins and their dealings with all things Upside Down. When show creators Ross and Matt Duffer announced the end of the series, however, they also teased that “there are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things.”
It turns out that the Duffer Brothers do have a very specific and “very, very different” spinoff idea. And the only person who knows about it besides the two of them is Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler on the original show—but not for the reasons you might think.
“We do have an idea for a spinoff that we’re super excited about … but we haven’t told anyone the idea yet, much less written it,” the Duffer brothers wrote in an email to Variety last week. “We think everyone—including Netflix—will be surprised when they hear the concept, because it’s very, very different. But somehow Finn Wolfhard—who is one crazy smart kid—correctly guessed what it was going to be about. But aside from Finn, no one else knows!”
Nice work, Finn! And good luck having every reporter ask you what the spinoff idea is in every interview you do from here on out!
We don’t have any inkling about what this spinoff idea may be beyond the Duffer Brothers’ statement above. Perhaps the Mind Flayer will get his own talk show, á la Space Ghost: Coast to Coast? Or maybe the Wheeler parents, Karen and Ted, will get their own sitcom-style series?
Probably not, though I’d watch both of those, to be honest. But whatever it is, I’m sure Netflix will eagerly put it into production.
In the meantime, we can catch the first seven episodes of Stranger Things 4 on Friday, May 27, and the remaining two super-sized episodes (the last one is 2.5 hours long!) on July 1. No news yet on when Stranger Things 5 will come out on the streaming platform.