The first trailer for the new family-friendly show featuring the familiar Hawkins characters is here
By Max Pilley 2nd February 2026
'Stranger Things: Tales From '85' still. Credit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2025
The new animated spin-off Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 will be hitting screens sooner than many fans expected.
- READ MORE: ‘Stranger Things’ season five, volume one review: the big, bold beginning of the end
The show has been in the works for some time, and it will depict the students of Hawkins, Indiana as they head out on a new set of adventures. It will be set between the second and third seasons of the original series and will feature an all-new cast.
AdvertisementNetflix have confirmed that the show will debut on the streaming service on April 23, less than four months after the much-discussed conclusion of season five of the main show.
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer are executive producers on Tales From ‘85, while Eric Robles serving as showrunner. It is expected to be a more family-friendly version of the Hawkins saga, although specific details of the plot remain under wraps.
Check out a new trailer for the show here, which features Naked Eyes’ version of ‘Always Something There To Remind Me’:
Brooklyn Davey Norstedt, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport and Elisha Williams will voice Eleven, Max and Lucas respectively, while Marty Supreme star Odessa A’zion is also in the voice cast.
RecommendedAn official synopsis reads: “Welcome back to Hawkins in the stark winter of 1985, where the original characters must fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorising their town in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an epic new animated series.”
The Duffer brothers have said: “When we started talking about, was there anything else we wanted to do with Stranger Things, this was one of our first ideas. The idea was to evoke a feeling of an ’80s cartoon. With animation, there’s really no limits. Eric and his team can go wild, and they have.”
Robles added: “What we have been able to capture is the magic of Hawkins in a new way. Our story takes place between seasons two and three, but we soon learn that nothing is quite as they thought it was.”
“So get your flashlight and backpack, because it’s going to be amazing,” he added.
AdvertisementAnother Stranger Things spin-off is in the works, a live-action show that the Duffer brothers have described as exploring “new characters and a new mythology”, but without the characters from the main show.
“It’s a different decade and different characters, but of course, still connected to the Stranger Things universe,” Ross Duffer explained. “It’s an idea we’ve had for years and something we’re just really excited and passionate about. We won’t be showrunning that show, but we’ll be heavily involved. So, as the new year comes around, we’re going to start spending more time on that. Hopefully it’s something announced soon-ish.”
