Stranger Things‘ fifth and final season may be on the horizon but the franchise is far from over, with spin-offs galore to hit our screens in the following years — including an animated series, reports Variety. YES.
The details of the show are yet to be revealed, but we do know it will be executively produced by the Duffer brothers, as well as Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen (who are also producers of Stranger Things).
The series will be developed by Flying Bark Productions (which you might know from Marvel’s What If… series and Jordan Peele‘s animated movie Wendell & Wild) and Eric Robles (who created Fanboy & Chum Chum and Glitch Techs).
A ‘STRANGER THINGS’ animated series is officially in the works.
More Spin Offs coming in the future. pic.twitter.com/z7i8ZEWnZF
— Stranger News (@StrangerNews11) April 10, 2023
Now, what I want more than anything in this world is for the Stranger Things animated series to have a look similar to Arcane or even Star Wars: Clone Wars (though with darker aesthetics, of course). Or, wait, even better: an 80s comic-style animation a lá these posters:
An animated ‘Stranger Things’ series has been ordered at Netflix. pic.twitter.com/6PqMduMKWe
— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 10, 2023
But it doesn’t look like the show will be as adult as the original series, so maybe not.
“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,” the Duffer brothers said in a statement per Variety.
“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…”
The fact that the inspo behind this show is Saturday morning cartoons leads me to believe the spin-off will be more kid-friendly, in both plot and colourful animation style, though how that will work given the gory nature of Stranger Things I don’t know.
Maybe it’ll be dark but child-friendly like Coraline or Paranorman? I guess we can look to Netflix’s Stranger Morning Cartoons for inspo.
All I know is a G-rated Stranger Things show does not really appeal to me. But hey, I guess it would be a wise move in terms of expanding the show’s demographic. We all know the money’s in kids shows. I mean, think of those toy sales…
Want to read more about Stranger Things‘ final season? Check out our mega-yarn here.
