Stranger Things

Stranger Things is an American science fiction/horror television show that premiered on the streaming service Netflix in July 2016. It was created by Matt and Ross Duffer, collectively known as the Duffer Brothers. The series follows the adventures of residents of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. The first season is set in November 1983 and focuses on the disappearance of a young boy named Will Byers as a series of unexplainable events take hold of the small town. Will’s friends and family set out in search of the boy and stumble upon a conspiracy involving a telekinetic girl and a mysterious government project. The group discovers a portal to a new dimension has been ripped open, and creatures from the “Upside Down” are now feeding on Hawkins residents. Season two, set one year after season one’s events, continues to follow the story of the Upside Down and its impact on Hawkins. Season three takes place in the summer of 1985 and deals with the characters’ adolescent angst amidst their ongoing struggle against the Upside Down and its overlord. In season four, the characters fight against a new villain in the Upside Down. The series original cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, and Joe Keery. Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery were cast in regular roles for seasons two and three, while Maya Hawke was cast in the third and fourth seasons. The series received critical acclaim following its debut and amassed a large viewership, becoming a cultural phenomenon around the world in the mid-2010s and 2020s.

Background

The Duffer Brothers came up with a rough outline of what would become the show Stanger Things several years before its actual conception. After seeing the 2013 Denis Villeneuve film, Prisoners, a story of a desperate parent who will stop at nothing to find his missing child, the brothers thought the film would have been even better as a miniseries. They began talking about writing their own missing person story. The brothers did not want their show to be as drama-heavy and instead decided to incorporate lighter aspects of childhood and combine this sensibility with a science fiction/horror theme. Self-proclaimed nerds who grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Duffers wanted to give viewers a hefty dose of nostalgia. They were raised on classic films of the 1970s and 1980s by directors such as Steven Spielberg. They also loved the works of horror writer Stephen King. The brothers took inspiration from these stories and chose to set the plot in the early 1980s.

Another source of inspiration for the Duffers was a series of bizarre government experiments conducted from the 1950s to the 1970s collectively known as Project MKUltra. This Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-led program involved mind control experiments using various psychotropic substances. This real-life event paired with the brother’s love of science fiction and horror served as the starting off point for the pilot episode’s script. The show was originally titled Montauk and was to be set in the city of Montauk, New York. The creators cited classic 1970s and 1980s films such as Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist, Stand by Me, and Firestarter as influences for the tone and vision of the show. The Duffers pitched their script to dozens of networks and received close to twenty rejections. Few networks were willing to give a show carried primarily by child actors a shot. The Duffers’ script eventually landed in the hands of Netflix executives, who swiftly purchased not only the script but signed the brothers for a full eight-episode season.

Casting began shortly after the 2015 purchase. The first actor to be cast in the show was Winona Ryder, whose career peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. Ryder would play Joyce Byers, the mother of the missing boy. David Harbour joined the show soon after as Jim Hopper, Hawkins’ chief of police. This was followed by Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Millie Bobby Brown as the telepathic Eleven, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, and Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers. Noah Schnapp was cast as Will Byers, the boy who goes missing. Matthew Modine was cast as the shady scientist Martin Brenner. Joe Keery was cast as Nancy’s jock boyfriend Steve Harrington.

Overview

The first season of Stranger Things begins with the disappearance of twelve-year-old Will Byers. After playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons at a friend’s house, Byers is chased through the woods by a dark and mysterious creature before vanishing. His friends, upset with the way police are handling the investigation of their missing friend, decide to take matters into their own hands. During their search, they stumble upon a young girl who goes by the name Eleven. It is later revealed she has special powers that allow her to move objects with her mind and contact other dimensions. Eleven is on the run from the government that raised her to use her abilities for their own purposes. During an experiment, Eleven makes contact with a sinister parallel dimension and opens a portal to the dimension, which the kids refer to as the Upside Down. The portal has allowed a creature the kids call the “Demogorgon” to cross over into their dimension. Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Eleven, Joyce, and Hopper must try to find a way into the dimension before its flesh-eating inhabitants find and kill Will.

Season two continues the saga of the Upside Down after the kids figure out that the portal must be sealed to keep its creatures from continuing to enter their dimension. Will becomes a central figure of this mystery when the apparent leader of the Demogorgons, which the kids refer to as the Mind Flayer, takes control of his mind and body. The kids are once again pitted against creatures from the Upside Down, with Hopper, Joyce, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve joining the adventure. This season introduces two new characters into the mix, tomboy Max, played by Sadie Sink, and her bullying brother Billy, played by Dacre Montgomery. Although the season ends with Eleven succeeding in sealing the portal’s gate, it is indicated that the Upside Down still lurks beneath Hawkin’s surface.

Season three picks up in the summer of 1985, with the town’s newly constructed Starcourt Mall running local businesses into the ground. Mike and Eleven have embarked on a romantic relationship, which Eleven’s adoptive father, Hopper, struggles to come to terms with. When a number of Hawkins residents are observed acting strangely, the kids begin to wonder if the portal has been reopened. They soon find themselves pitted against the Mind Flayer itself and must rush to reclose the portal to save their town from further destruction. Following the show’s third season, Netflix renewed it for a fourth season.

Season four was delayed repeatedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and difficulties of filming during that period. When it was finally released in 2022, it was comprised of two volumes that were released on Netflix within several weeks of each other. The fourth season takes place in 1986, and the group of friends are navigating high school. Notably, the season takes place in several locations outside of Hawkins, including Alaska, Russia, and California. By this season's end, several of the kids have fought a creature of the Upside Down whom they have named Vecna after a Dungeons and Dragons character, and the Upside Down has invaded Hawkins, effectively setting the stage for the series' final season. In February 2022, Netflix announced that the fifth season would be the last season of the beloved series, though rumors circulated that spinoffs would be likely in the future. Filming was expected to begin in June 2023.

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