Stranger Things wrapped its fifth and final season last December, but fans can now return to Hawkins to reunite with Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, Hopper, and the others in a new animated series set between the events of seasons 2 and 3.
Tales from '85 arrived on Netflix last week amid mixed reviews, and the streamer has now announced that the show will return for a second season at some point this fall.
The 10-episode series, from animation veteran and showrunner Eric Robles, was renewed just four days after its debut, after claiming the No. 7 spot on the streamer’s global top 10 list with 2.8 million views.
During an interview with THR, Robles explained how he approached this animated extension of the universe.
"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?'”
Robles went on to reveal that he took some influence from classic horror movie, Re-Animator.
"In the early days of development, when Netflix approached me about this, the problem was — and many had tried prior to me — that the Duffer Brothers wanted [the story] to take place inside [seasons] two and three — but you can’t open up gates. How do you create creatures if the gates are closed? So I went back to my library of ‘80s films that I used to watch, that my dad used to make me watch with him, and there was Re-Animator. This classic ‘80s film gave me the idea. If we can have Hawkins lab science meet Upside Down matter as they did in Re-Animator, then we can open up this whole new kind of adventure."
Check out a teaser for season 2 below.
Producing alongside Robles are Matt and Ross Duffer, Hilary Leavitt via Upside Down Pictures, Shawn Levy via 21 Laps, and Dan Cohen.
The main show's cast will not return to voice their respective characters, with Brooklyn Davey Norstedt taking over as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Benjamin Plessala as Will, Brett Gipson as Hopper, Jeremy Jordan as Steve, as well as Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Welcome back to Hawkins in the stark winter of 1985, where the original characters must fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an epic new animated series.