'Stranger Things: Tales from '85'

Netflix

Share on Facebook

Share on X

Google Preferred

Share to Flipboard

Show additional share options

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Pinterest

Share on Reddit

Share on Tumblr

Share on Whats App

Send an Email

Print the Article

Related Stories

Movies

Greta Lee, Wagner Moura's Sci-Fi Thriller 'The Last House' Gets Release Date and First Look From Netflix

'Beef' Creator Lee Sung Jin Says He'd Be "Perfectly Happy" to End with Season 2

Collectively, all five seasons of the Duffers and Shawn Levy-produced series starring Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour and Winona Ryder have accumulated 1.5 billion combined views through March 2025 since their premieres. Interest in season five has also propelled the show’s previous four seasons back into the global top 10 for eight weeks — another record-breaker for the series and streamer. As part of the Stranger Things 2025 campaign, the fifth season also garnered 5.75 billion owned social impressions. Together, the show has amassed nearly 10 billion owned social impressions.

This also follows the season five soundtrack impact, including Prince’s “Purple Rain” seeing a surge in Gen Z streams, and Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” garnering a spike in global searches. The Stranger Things season five launch also produced the largest consumer products program in Netflix’s history and bump in ticket sales (to the highest levels since the initial launch) of the Tony-award-winning Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which was recently filmed with the original Broadway cast.

The Stranger Things universe is alive and well on the screen, stage, in stores and at Netflix House, with Tales From ‘85 being the latest investment by Netflix to see success among audiences. In wake of the animated spinoff’s renewal and its live-action predecessor’s ongoing impact, Nobles spoke with The Hollywood Reporter exclusively below and teased what fans can expect from season two when they will continue to expand the Stranger Things universe.

***

When you were discussing extending the Stranger Things universe, what material was in your “content bible”? What did you have room to play around with, and what couldn’t you do?

The assignment was, “Hey, Eric, do you want to build this fun frozen-in-time moment with these kids, where you think back to shows that we grew up watching in the ’80s?” For myself, that was The Real Ghostbusters. Back then, just to be given an animated version of more adventures with the team was a dream come true. But if you’re familiar with The Real Ghostbusters, you know Ghostbusters II came out, and it wasn’t like, “How come they don’t talk about the Boogeyman?” — because the Boogeyman was a big part of the animated series. There were so many adventures within the animated series that were never discussed in the movies. So [Matt and Ross Duffer] said, “We want you to have these great adventures with these lovable kids at a time when they weren’t worrying about saving the world. It’s just about saving Hawkins. Could we have fun opening up this sandbox between seasons two and three, and tell these fun adventures with these kids being kids, riding bikes, solving mysteries?”

But we also have to respect certain rules and parameters. The Duffer Brothers didn’t want us to go down their specific lore. Because once we open that gate and have the Mind Flayer or Vecna come out, it would have destroyed what they’d already built. If you’re a hardcore fan, you can easily plop us on and enjoy. When we talk about what is canon, I’ll tell you: it’s the personalities of these characters. We had to make sure stayed true. If we learn a little bit more about them, it tech

'Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85' Renewed for Season 2: Interview