Netflix is pushing the Stranger Things universe into new creative territory this spring, using animation to explore a period of the story the flagship series never showed on screen. The result, Tales From ’85, arrives April 23 and reframes the franchise not around a single catastrophic event, but around the uneasy calm that follows one — and the consequences of assuming danger has passed.
Set in the winter of 1985, between the second and third seasons of Stranger Things, the animated series asks what happens when Hawkins believes the gate to the Upside Down is closed, routines have returned, and the town has lowered its guard. Snowball fights and Dungeons & Dragons sessions replace panic — at least briefly — before new threats begin to surface.
Netflix previewed the project this week with a teaser showing animated versions of Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Max and Hopper enjoying what appears to be a snow day, only to realize that something tied to the Upside Down survived the previous year’s events. Dustin delivers the warning bluntly: whatever they thought was over, isn’t.
New monsters, familiar faces
Unlike earlier expansions of the Stranger Things brand, Tales From ’85 introduces entirely new creatures rather than revisiting known villains. Showrunner Eric Robles, whose previous work includes Glitch Techs and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, describes the monsters as hybrids — part Hawkins Lab science, part Upside Down matter — born from experiments colliding with the alternate dimension.
The teaser offers flashes of those threats: a tentacled creature looming in a purple-lit forest, glowing yellow goo splattered across a vehicle, and characters confronting danger with improvised weapons like axes. One scene shows a man in a police jacket — Hopper — standing tensely with a boy outside a cabin, while another reveals two kids driving as blue light pulses between them from inside their car.
The series also adds a key fan favorite. Steve Harrington appears for the first time in animated form, voiced by Jeremy Jordan, known for Supergirl and Hazbin Hotel. His inclusion signals that the spinoff is not a side story detached from canon, but a tightly integrated chapter within the Stranger Things timeline.
A different cast, same characters
While the characters are familiar, the voices are not. Eleven is voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt, with Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Benjamin Plessala as Will, and Brett Gipson as Hopper. Additional roles are voiced by Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips, though their characters have not yet been disclosed.
The story follows the group as they attempt to identify what has awakened beneath the ice. The mystery deliberately leaves its origins unclear: the threat could stem from the Upside Down, Hawkins Lab, or somewhere else entirely. According to the series synopsis, the heroes must race to solve that question before Hawkins is once again overwhelmed.
Behind the scenes, Robles serves as showrunner and executive producer through Flying Bark Productions. He is joined by Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer and Hilary Leavitt under their Upside Down Pictures banner, alongside Shawn Levy via 21 Laps and producer Dan Cohen.
Tales From ’85 premieres April 23 exclusively on Netflix, marking the franchise’s first major animated entry — and a test of whether Stranger Things can sustain its momentum by exploring quieter, colder moments where the real danger is assuming the nightmare has ended.
