For fans who have enjoyed Stranger Things will get another addition. Only this time, it will be an animated series focusing on the Upside Down evolving into a grand adventure on the outskirts of 1980’s Tokyo, Japan. The Duffer Brothers did confirm the series and has been in the works since early 2021. From what is understood, the series will be about 6 hours long and is labeled as “the first” Stranger Things spinoff. 

Netflix will provide the platform for the series and there is already a baked in audience ready to digest this anime series. Matt Duffer said the spin-off will be “1,000% different” from the original series and it will be a “story that connects to the Stranger Things world, but it really is more about how we’re telling that story.”

Most of the details surrounding this new series have been kept under wraps for now. However, they did confirm that Eric Robles and Flying Bark Productions developed the spin-off. Notably, Robles has previously created the animated series Random Cartoons, Fanboy & Chum Chim and the popular Glitch Techs. 

With Robles at the helm, it will be quite interesting to see exactly how this series will manifest itself. Many might wonder whether or not fans would enjoy an animated type of series instead of a live action one. Maybe more is planned and has been kept hush hush for now. The original series has swept the world by storm and many generations have enjoyed it so far. It is a fictional world with a great cast of characters portrayed by great actors. 

The Duffer Brothers come from North Carolina and are known for their creativity. They began making films in the third grade, using a Hi8 video camera that was a gift from their parents. So far, Stranger Things is their biggest success but they also have written and directed the 2015 psychological horror film entitled Hidden. Other credits include their Fox mystery-science fiction series titled Wayward Pines (2015).

When asked about Stranger Things the brothers responded, “We’ve always dreamed of an animated ‘Stranger Things’ in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,” they began. “We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues…”

One thing for certain is, Stranger Things has become one of Netflix’s biggest success stories. Over the last few years it reached 335 million hours of watch time in a single week. There has been 1.35 billion hours accounted for so far in its first 28 days when it first was released. Additionally, Stranger Things’ final season went on to debut a staggering 286.7 million hours streaming during its premiere weekend. 

We can only hope the series launches soon but with anything like this a lot of work goes into it. More than likely the series will become at least moderately successful if not more. The picture used is from the mobile Stranger things video game but gives us an idea of what it might look like anyway. Stranger Things season 5 release date isn’t officially announced yet but at earliest we can expect it around December of 2024.

Disney’s Mandalorian doesn’t have an ending yet, but you can read about that here.