‘Stranger Things’ Star Guessed the New Netflix Spinoff Early — and the Duffer Brothers Confirmed It

The world of Stranger Things is getting bigger, and it may be heading far beyond Hawkins, Indiana. Netflix already confirmed back in 2022 that a spinoff is in the works. It will arrive after the hit series wraps up with its fifth and final season later this year.

The Duffer Brothers, who created the show, are also working on an animated series called Stranger Things: Tales From ’85. But when it comes to the mysterious live-action spinoff, no one outside the creators really knows what it’s about.

Well, except maybe Finn Wolfhard. The actor, who plays Mike Wheeler, somehow guessed the plot before anyone told him. Ross Duffer told Variety, “Nobody — not Netflix, not any of the producers, not any of the directors, not any of the actors — nobody else has figured out what the spinoff is. Finn figured [it] out, which is pretty remarkable. We’ve mind-melded with this kid a bit.”

Wolfhard compared the new series to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, describing it as “sort of an anthology and different tones but similar universe or same universe,” but not set in Hawkins at all.

“I think set in different places and all tied together through this mythology of the Upside Down,” he explained. He also added, “Don’t even talk about Hawkins. Don’t have any mention of our characters. They were toying around with ideas in case Netflix wanted them. I’m sure they do, and I’m sure it will happen, but there’s nothing official.”

He has his own ideas about where the story could go. “I think the coolest way, the way that I would do it, there has to be labs everywhere. If there was one in Hawkins, there’s one in Russia. Where else could they be?” Wolfhard said.

The labs he’s talking about are the Hawkins National Laboratory, where Dr. Martin Brenner ran secret experiments under the CIA’s Project MKUltra. That’s where Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) was born and given her powers. Over the seasons, the show introduced other test subjects like Eight (Linnea Berthelsen) and One, better known as the villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower).

The Stranger Things universe has already stretched far beyond Hawkins. In other stories, fans have learned about Dimension X, the Kamchatka lab in Russia, and even strange government projects like Project Rainbow.

Matt Duffer has shut down the idea of simply giving popular characters their own series. “I’ve read these rumors that there’s gonna be an Eleven spinoff, that there’s gonna be a Steve and Dustin spinoff, or that it’s another [character],” he said back in 2022. “That’s not interesting to me because we’ve done all that. We’ve spent I don’t know how many hours exploring all of that. So it’s very different.”

While he hasn’t shared many details, Duffer hinted, “There is [a] story that connects to the Stranger Things world, but it really is more about how we’re telling that story.”

Stranger Things season 5 will be split into three parts, with the first part arriving November 26 on Netflix.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!