Netflix is doubling down on the Stranger Things universe, renewing its animated spin-off Stranger Things: Tales From '85 for a second season just five days after the show premiered on April 23. The second season will arrive this fall, making for a remarkably quick turnaround.
The renewal comes despite a rocky critical reception. Season 1 earned a 63% score from critics and a 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest marks in the franchise's history. Still, the numbers were hard to argue with. The show debuted at number seven on Netflix's weekly English-language TV chart for the week of April 20 through 26, logging 13.8 million hours viewed, which translates to roughly 2.8 million complete views when divided by the show's total runtime.
The animated series is set in the winter of 1985, slotting between Seasons 2 and 3 of the original live-action show. It follows Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max as a new threat stirs beneath the frozen surface of Hawkins. None of the original cast reprise their roles. The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt, Luca Diaz, Braxton Quinney, Odessa A'zion, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Janeane Garofalo, among others.
Eric Robles and Jennifer Muro developed the series. Robles serves as executive producer and showrunner, alongside Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, producer Shawn Levy, and Dan Cohen. Flying Bark handles animation.
Showrunner Eric Nobles, who goes by a different credit than series developer Robles, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about where the story is headed. Central to the arc is Nikki Baxter, a new character voiced by A'zion who exists outside the established Stranger Things timeline. "Technically, she doesn't fit into the timeline," Nobles said. "It's not in the cards, in the sense that this was developed when the Duffers were in Season 4 post-production. What I can say is that I understand the responsibility of ending this story for this series correctly."
He acknowledged the difficulty of satisfying a fanbase that already feels burned by the controversial Series 5 finale, which aired on New Year's Day and drew criticism for playing it too safe. "Is it going to be perfect? I don't know," Nobles said. "But I'm going to do my best with my team. It's not going to satisfy everybody. That is the most impossible task ever. But I can tell you that we will satisfy this story, Tales From '85."
Season 2 will take the show to new locations, Nobles confirmed, and bully characters Jeff and Charlie, introduced in Season 1, are expected to return. He also said the show will continue its limited theatrical release strategy, following Netflix's recent precedent of putting select titles in cinemas alongside their streaming debuts.
The Stranger Things universe is expanding on multiple fronts. The Duffer brothers are separately developing a live-action spin-off centered on the ancient rock that gave the villain Henry Creel, known as Vecna, his powers. A Broadway production, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, has also been running. With Tales From '85 now locked in for at least two seasons and a fall premiere window confirmed, Netflix is clearly treating the franchise as a long-term enterprise rather than a story that ended when the mothership did.
