Videos by ComicBook.com
First up is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a series that will take place in between Seasons 2 and 3 of the main TV show. It’ll once again pick things up with the gang in Hawkins, where they discover things weren’t quite as quiet as they thought. Unlike its parent series, Tales From ’85 is an animated series, with a style somewhat reminiscent of Netflix’s Arcane, which the Duffers explain in the video below was intended to “evoke the feeling of an ’80s cartoon.”
The video doesn’t give a whole lot to go on plot wise, but finds the kids getting up to some usual hijinks before the threats from the Upside Down being to emerge, with what looks like a new spin on a demogorgon. Most of the show’s main characters are confirmed to appear in the series, but won’t be played by the same actors as in live-action (presumably due to a mix of scheduling, production costs, and them aging out of the roles even for voice work). The new cast includes:
- Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven
- Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max
- Luca Diaz as Mike
- Ej (Elisha) Williams as Lucas
- Braxton Quinney as Dustin
- Ben Plessala as Will
- Brett Gipson as Hopper
- The voice cast also includes Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips in unconfirmed roles.
How Does Tales From ’85 Fit Into Stranger Things?
Stranger Things Season 2 took place around Halloween 1984, and ended with Eleven closing the gate to the Upside Down, although the finale teased the return of the Mind Flayer despite that. Season 3 primarily takes place in the summer of 1985, with that aforementioned Mind Flayer tease being paid off. The new spinoff show takes place in early 1985, with the footage clearly revealing that it’s set during the winter, and notably features the gang having to face off against more Upside Down-related threats.
This should be a relatively simple enough expansion, but it does carry the risk of plot holes. There’s seemingly no mention of these events in Stranger Things Season 3, after all, since the animated show did not exist then, and that’s where the spinoff has to be careful. It needs to find the balance between having dramatic enough stakes that it feels like a worthwhile entry into the show’s canon, but without being too big that it becomes bizarre that whatever transpires was never brought up again.
