Missing ‘Stranger Things’?: Here’s what Duffer Brothers are doing next
The empty feeling that’s left inside after finishing the last episode of Stranger Things is hard to process. Not just a season, the whole thing. Gone. Wrapped up. A closed door. And for some reason, that last shot of them walking up the basement stairs felt like it hit every version of me that watched this show through the years.
It wasn’t just a series. It was a break-from-reality show. Our rewatch-it-when-everything-sucks show. The one that made the world stop for a night whenever a new season dropped. And now we are sitting here trying to act normal when all I want is to crawl back into that dusty Indiana town and pretend we still have time.
But maybe the Duffers knew we’d fall apart like this. Maybe that’s why they didn’t wait a second before giving us more. Not a spin-off, but a whole damn multiverse of madness.
So if you are feeling that weird grief and don’t know where to place it, here’s a start. Here’s what the Duffer Brothers are building next. And you better believe it’s going to mess with you all over again.
Three projects the Duffers are bringing after Stranger Things:
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 (2026)
Just when you thought we were finally out of Hawkins, they pull us right back in. But this time, we are getting it animated. Tales From ’85 is set in that weird in-between timeline after season two but before everything got completely wrecked in season three. And yes, it’s animated, which means the Duffers don’t have to hold back anymore. No budget worries, no production delays. And a little more scope for experiment. The cast is new this time, and it looks like the kind of thing that’s going to be way more intense than it looks on the surface.
But the wild part? They have brought back the OG gang, just voiced by new actors, and dropped them into a brand-new mystery that feels like classic Stranger Things but with even more freedom. According to Ross Duffer, the animators were told to go “completely wild”, and they absolutely took that to heart. Think of it as Hawkins on acid. If you weren’t ready to say goodbye yet… You don’t have to.
The Boroughs (TBA)
You know that moment when you watch the opening scene of a show and immediately get that gut feeling that something is about to go very, very wrong? That’s The Boroughs. It is set in a beautiful retirement community in the middle of the New Mexico desert, and if that already sounds off, the Duffers have trained you well. This is not your chill grandparent energy. The characters are sharper and possibly the only ones standing between the world and something way more terrifying than any Demogorgon.
The Duffers say these aren’t your typical action heroes, but they are just as chaotic and lovable as the Hawkins crew, maybe even more so. The tone is completely eerie, and the premise feels like something no one else would dare pull off. Elderly misfits versus a time-stealing alien threat? Hell yeah. Give it. Now. And knowing the Duffers, this show is going to mess with your head and your feelings all at once.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TBA)
The title says it all, and yet, you know well enough that you are still going to press play. We like to call it the curse of Duffers. Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen takes place in the week before a wedding, and from the first frame, you will know it’s not going to end with a romantic kiss. The Duffers aren’t running the show this time, but they are producing it, and they have called the creator, Haley Z Boston, one of the most twisted, terrifying voices they have ever read. Which means you are not just watching a horror series… You are walking into a trap.
Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco are the couple at the centre of it all, but the entire cast is brilliant, and everyone seems to be hiding something. You are not dealing with a cursed house or a haunted object, but this is existential horror wrapped in a love story, and it’s going to make you feel everything at once. The Duffers said they were “knocked flat” by the script, and honestly, that’s probably going to be you by episode two.