If there’s one thing to take away from Netflix’s recent drop in subscribers, it’s that things would be a lot worse if it weren’t for Stranger Things.
The sci-fi giant is the latest entry into Netflix’s billionaire club. Ahead of its release, the chatter was whether it could beat Bridgerton’s record and become the most-watched English-language show on Netflix. As it turned out, it completely destroyed the district drama and has become the biggest English-language Netflix series of all time and the first to rack up over a billion hours of viewing in its first 28 days of release. It now stands at 1.31 billion, nearly double what Bridgerton drew.
The problem for Netflix is, Stranger Things is late in the game. There’s still one more season, but Neflix needs more than that. Investors need more than that, and customers, whose fingers will hang on the cancel button in the midst of a cost of living crisis, need more than that.
Luckily, we know the Stranger Things spinoff series is coming. But the big question is, what will actually happen?
After season 4 – and with Stranger Things season 5 behind – speculation is rife around where the next spinoff will be: whether it will follow a character we already know, or something else entirely.
It’s important to remember that Stranger Things was originally intended as an anthology series, similar to American Horror Story – with a different cast of characters each season. The overwhelming popularity of Stranger Things, however, means that Netflix and the Duffer brothers saw good business sense in continuing the story they had started.
With Stranger Things season 5 about to end the show’s arc so far, the spinoff is the perfect opportunity to fulfill that initial concept.
The Duffer brothers won’t act as showrunners for the spinoff, and say it will be “1000% different”, though it will definitely have a hand in determining its direction.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the show’s creators brushed off any speculation around an “Eleven spin-off” or a “Steven and Dustin spin-off,” so it looks like we’re getting a whole new roster of characters. But is it possible? Here are our five best Stranger Things spinoff predictions.
Of course, there are some spoilers for Stranger Things below.
1. Young Hopper
David Harbor is one of the show’s biggest talents, and it makes sense we might want to see more of him – or perhaps with a new casting to portray Chief Hopper at an earlier time in his life.
A Vietnam war veteran, watching a young Hopper return to the United States and become the hot-tempered detective we know and love can be exciting. To see also : Broadcast in Canada on Amazon Prime Video, Crave, Disney + and Netflix [July 11-17].
While there may not be any supernatural inclination to this spin-off idea, a young and hot-tempered police cadet/detective who digs deep into the backstory of Hawkins and his residents can make some great popcorn. But since we’ve seen so many communities and those settings, it might feel a little too secure…
2. New York, New York
Stranger Things season 2 takes a short detour from sleepy Hawkins to Chicago to a toy with a more urban feel, and the most effective way to make this spinoff feel different is to leave the quiet haunted city for something a little more lively – see how supernatural threats impact a denser population and subway passengers. To see also : Ryan Fitzpatrick joins Amazon Prime Video as a studio analyst.
The Duffer brothers are huge fans of the Ghosbusters movie, and maybe it’s time we moved away from sneaky creeping tentacles and towards big, brash, city-destroying action.
We’d also like to see some enemies that aren’t from The Upside-Down at this point – maybe some ghosts terrorizing innocent kids for a change?
3. The Satanic Panic
Stranger Things has a long history of using monster imagery and concepts from Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game that some players really like. To see also : Netflix Trials charges $ 2.99 for shared accounts.
With season 4 linking Vecna’s murder to the so-called “Devil Panic” of the 1980s, in which hysterical media cycles fueled fears about D&D as a gateway to satanic cult, this could prove a fruitful jumping off point for a new series. .
The spin-off can visit other places in the US where paranormal/supernatural events are entangled in the dice game of some innocent gamer. (Perhaps the demon summoning ritual that accidentally worked?)
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4. Stranger Things: Tokyo
If that’s good enough for Queer Eye, it’s good enough for Stranger Things. Netflix is a global platform with connections to creatives and production crews around the world – and it can be interesting to engage with several different cultural mythologies, whether the Yōkai from Japanese folklore or the Grimm Brothers fairy tales from Germany. (Foreign Things: The Bollywood Edition will be a sight to behold, too.)
This will be a real shake-up for the series, and allow Netflix to start turning Stranger Things into a global show bigger than ever, cycling through the platform’s largest territories for consecutive seasons – as long as they ensure creatives from those countries, with understanding from local folklore, lead the charge.
5. Back to the Past
Stranger Things openly absorbs influences from the 80s, from action and Steven Spielberg films to Star Wars films. But now that we’ve covered telekinetic power and interdimensional travel so extensively, it might be time to move on to another favorite movie from the ’80s: Back to the Future.
Time travel will be a fun and different way to help the new spinoff stand out, while exploring a few different ideas – changing your past, seeing the future, and trying to fend off your parents’ romantic advances, in the future classic Back to the Mode.
It’s also the kind of sci-fi tech that involves unscrupulous government officials and irresponsible scientists, which so far seems to be a staple of the Stranger Things story.
Henry is a freelance technology journalist. Prior to freelance, he spent more than three years at TechRadar covering TVs, projectors and smart speakers as the website’s Home Cinema Editor – and has been interviewed live on BBC World News and Channel News Asia, discussing the future of transport and 4K television resolution. each. An English Literature graduate and avid theater buff, he will usually be found forcing Shakespeare’s puns into his tech articles, which he thinks is exactly what Bard wants. Bylines also include Edge, T3, and Little White Lies.
Henry is a freelance technology journalist. Prior to freelance, he spent more than three years at TechRadar covering TVs, projectors and smart speakers as the website’s Home Cinema Editor – and has been interviewed live on BBC World News and Channel News Asia, discussing the future of transport and 4K television resolution. each. An English Literature graduate and avid theater buff, he will usually be found forcing Shakespeare’s puns into his tech articles, which he thinks is exactly what Bard wants. Bylines also include Edge, T3, and Little White Lies.
