Stranger Things: Tales From '85 - Everything You Need To Know

After a controversial and somewhat divisive series finale for the flagship show, the "Stranger Things" timeline is expanding, and they're going to take it all the way back to yesterday and give fans a glimpse at something they missed. "Stranger Things: Tales from '85" is a midquel outing that occurs in a gap between Season 2 and Season 3 of the drama. It returns to the program's more innocent days, when the kids were younger, the monsters easier to defeat, and Hawkins more apt to return to normal.

This is the first post-run spin-off to bloom from the much-beloved sci-fi phenom, so naturally devotees must be curious to know when they can watch it, what it will be about, and what the plot must be. Have no fear — this article will give you the low-down on the tone, the setting, and the actors involved. Here's everything you need to know to be ready for "Stranger Things: Tales from '85."

Much like the feature-length series finale of "Stranger Things," "Stranger Things: Tales from '85" launched early in select movie theaters before hitting Netflix. Fans were be able to watch it in 34 AMC theaters across the country, plus Netflix House in Philadelphia and The Paris Theater in New York. The showings took take place on April 18 at 12 and 3 PM.

For those who missed out on seeing it on the big screen, the wait won't be too much longer. The series drops on the streamer on April 23. As per usual, it will be released at 12:00 AM PST. The first two episodes will drop on the same day, and there's no word as to how long each episode will be. Fans will have to keep their eyes on the clock to find out how much extra time they're going to have with El and her friends.

Beware, "Stranger Things" fanatics: None of the show's original cast will be returning for "Stranger Things: Tales from '85." Instead, an entirely different group of professional voice and live-action actors will be playing the people you know and love. 

Brooklyn Davey Norstedt will be taking over the role of Eleven, alongside Luca Diaz as Mike Wheeler, Elisha Williams as Lucas Sinclair, Braxton Quinney as Dustin Henderson, Benjamin Plessala as Will Byers, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max Mayfield, Brett Gipson as Hopper, and Jeremy Jordan as Steve Harrington. There will be several new faces in town, with Janeane Garofalo playing an unnamed character and Odessa A'zion as tough punk kid Nikki Baxter, a newbie to the cast. As of press time there's no word as to who will be playing Joyce Byers or any of the older teen characters. 

As noted above, the show will be set between Season 2 and Season 3 — a season fans of "Stranger Things" believe gets better every time they rewatch it — during the winter of 1985, when a brand-new mystery will present itself to the party. Things have finally settled down after their travails in the darker, more horror-orientated Season 2, during which Eleven seemingly closed the gate between Hawkins Lab and the Upside Down. The kids have returned to the normalcy of childhood and the simple joys of playing D&D together. But evil lurks in the shadows, and under the snows of Hawkins. The party will have to join forces to put things to right once again, and save themselves — and Hawkins itself — from the terror of a new evil.

The gang will rely upon a brand-new addition to the crew named Nikki Baxter, who is pink haired and plays a barbarian in the gang's D&D team. She will naturally represent muscle and toughness when they join forces, and it's her job to beat back the evil creatures they're about to face down. The rest of the plot's details are under wraps.

As always with all things "Stranger Things," brothers Matt and Ross Duffer are listed as both executive producers and series creators. Dan Cohen, Hilary Leavitt, Shawn Levy, and Eric Robles share those duties. Leavitt represents Upside Down Pictures, while Levy is with 21 Laps. The animation company in charge of producing each episode is Flying Bark Production.

Phil Allora directed the first episode, and as of press time no other directors have been listed for the rest of the show's run. Allora is an experienced animation director, with many Disney art department credits including "Lilo and Stitch" and "Brother Bear." His animation directing career includes episodes of "The Cleveland Show," "Turbo FAST," and "DC Superhero Girls." 

The first episode was written by Jennifer Muro, who has written for animated TV shows for two decades. Her work can be heard in several Care Bear shows, but also 16 episodes of "Star Wars: Force of Destiny," "Star Trek: Prodigy," and "The Legend of Vox Machina." She also created the Netflix animated science fiction show for kids, "The Last Kids on Earth." As of press time, there's no indication as to who will direct and who will write the rest of the Season 1 run.

Netflix released a trailer for "Stranger Things: Tales from '85" on February 26. It shows a montage of familiar scenes — the local arcade, Hopper's house, and a photo of El and Mike together at the Snow Ball. El covers up her tattoo and answers the door; Mike Wheeler is there. El goes out with him to play, but not before Hopper threatens Mike's very life if anything happens to El while she's outside with him.

We then see several scenes of the kids having fun in the wintertime, but there's a bit of an edge to the peaceful feeling the trailer establishes. To the tune of the popular '80s tune "Always Something There to Remind Me," a snowstorm looms over Hawkins, while Max and Lucas' romance grows stronger — and Mike plans a new campaign to take place during that aforementioned snowpocalypse. But an unidentified evil being can be seen tunneling under the drifts, and that means something bad is ready to make life a whole lot tougher for the party. Viewers quickly learn that a creature successfully escaped the Upside Down before Eleven used her superpowers to close the rift, and it mutates into a new kind of monster with a pumpkin for a head. Havoc and danger ensue. 

As noted above, "Stranger Things: Tales from '85" is a midquel to "Stranger Things," which means it shows us a previously unseen adventure the party goes through between live-action outings. While the audience might know what happens to everyone after the events of "Tales from '85," what happens during the program remains a total mystery, and one that will likely enthrall viewers of the show with incidents they've never seen before.

Other ancillary spin-offs of the "Stranger Things" world include "Stranger Things: The First Shadow," a Broadway play that focuses on what the adult characters were doing years before the events of Season 1, including giving a lot of backstory to Henry Creel. One dumb thing fans couldn't ignore about volume 2 of Season 5 was that much of the narrative focused on what happened in "Stranger Things: The First Shadow." The franchise also includes pop-up stores and escape rooms, comic books, live experiences, video games, and young adult novels. Basically, if teenagers like it, the "Stranger Things" universe has a product for them to enjoy.

Naturally, "Stranger Things" remains a Netflix exclusive — at least for the moment. The streamer recently announced that the show will be hitting practical media with a full-series box set release, which means those with the cash will be able to see it in the comfort of their own homes at any time. It will hit store shelves in July.

Otherwise, the only options fans currently have to see the show is to stream it from Netflix. It isn't available as a set of individual episodes, nor is there any indication that the show will appear in syndication or in other formats. Of course, "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" only exists as a Broadway play at the moment — though Netflix, too, seems poised to release a professionally filmed version of the show. The best bet for fans of the franchise, at least for now, remains a Netflix subscription.