A new animated series returns to the Stranger Things universe
The five-season saga of Stranger Things may have concluded, but a new animated series offers fans the opportunity to return to Hawkins, Indiana, and reunite with characters they’ve come to know and love.
Following a brief theatrical run, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 makes its Netflix debut this week. Set between the series’ second and third seasons, the series tells a standalone story that fits neatly within the confines of the original.
“In the winter of 1985, snow blankets the town and the horrors of the Upside Down are finally fading,” states the series logline. “Our heroes Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max have settled back into a normal life of D&D, snowball fights and quiet days. But beneath the ice, something terrifying has awakened. Could it be from the Upside Down? From the depths of Hawkins Lab? Or from somewhere else entirely? Our heroes must race to solve this mystery and save Hawkins in this new story set in the Stranger Things universe.”
The idea for Tales From ’85 originated from the series’ creators, the Duffer Brothers, while they brainstormed various concepts set within the world of Stranger Things.
“When we started talking about was there anything else we wanted to do with Stranger Things, this was one of our first ideas,” Ross Duffer tells Tudum of the series, written and produced by showrunner Eric Robles.
“It’s got the thrill of being young, being a kid, and going on these thrilling adventures. But then there’s this essence of real danger, real stakes,” Robles explains. “We soon learn that nothing is quite as they thought it was.”
One thing that isn’t as it was is the cast, with new actors portraying the animated versions of the show’s characters: Eleven (voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt), Max (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), Mike (Luca Diaz), Lucas (Elisha “EJ” Williams), Dustin (Braxton Quinney), Will (Benjamin Plessala), Hopper (Brett Gipson) and Steve (Jeremy Jordan). They’ll be joined by Nikki Baxter, a pink-haired new character voiced by Marty Supreme standout Odessa A’zion.
In addition, Janeane Garofalo is voicing Anna Baxter, Nikki’s mother and new teacher at the Hawkins school, Lou Diamond Phillips voices Daniel Fischer, and Nightmare on Elm Street legend Robert Englund (who played nefarious Victor Creel in the fourth season) supplies the voice for a new character, Cosmo.
When he was first approached by the Duffers, Robles searched for inspiration by taking a deep dive into the past. “Let me do some research on this,” he recalls. “Let me really dissect the show, dig into my old memory vault of a lot of ’80s movies I used to watch, and see what I can piece together here.” Once he began that research, the concept for the spinoff “just hit me,” he noted.
“This is one of the rarest opportunities that we’re ever going to get to be with the main characters. We get to go back in time and really just hang out with these kids,” Robles adds.
“It’s like Hawkins Lab science meets Upside Down matter,” he continues. “When you put them together, those are the kinds of creatures we have in our world.”
That includes a shark-like monster hiding beneath the snow, which Robles reveals was inspired by his memories of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. “I grew up watching [that movie], and we play with the same trope in the sense [that] underneath all that snow, there’s something lurking, and you just never know where that thing’s going to come out and grab you,” he explains.
Jaws wasn’t the only vintage movie that inspired Robles. “I grew up watching a lot of horror movies and ’80s films like E.T., or The Goonies, or The Lost Boys. These classics just had this sense of kids figuring things out, and that the dangers were real. I love Stranger Things for so many reasons, including the nostalgia, and it just checks all the boxes of things I wanted to do. [With Tales From ’85], we follow a mystery that’s not reset after every episode. The audience can feel like they’re part of the journey with these kids.”
According to Robles, Tales from ’85 mixes together all the elements that he loved from those films. “It’s not just an action show, and it’s not a comedy, but it’s got elements of both,” he explains. “These kids love each other, and they [feel the] need to protect each other. They are all a family in a sense. We not only have these big adventures, but we’re also able to infuse a lot of heart and real moments into the show.”
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, streaming on Netflix beginning Thursday, April 23