Stranger Things is now over thanks to the action-packed Season 5 finale, but that isn’t the end of the franchise.
Stranger Things ended with most of the characters enjoying a happy ending, and the proverbial torch being passed to a new generation.
To find out how it all concluded, you can check out our Stranger Things ending explainer, plus a guide to who died during the climax.
But that isn’t the last we’ve seen of the franchise, with major plans afoot for future Stranger Things projects.
Will there be a Stranger Things Season 6?
No, there will not be a Stranger Things 6, with Season 5 concluding the Hawkins story.
Stranger Things creators, the Duffer brothers, have signed a deal with Paramount, meaning their time at Netflix is drawing to a close.
And they ended that central storyline pretty conclusively, with Vecna defeated, Hopper and Joyce getting engaged, the kids moving on, and Eleven either trapped in the Upside Down, or secretly escaping to a place where she finds peace and happiness.
In October, Matt Duffer told Variety: “We do every last remaining thing we wanted to do with the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer and Vecna and the Upside Down and Hawkins and these characters. This is a complete story. It’s done.”
But that isn’t the end of the strange tale…
Stranger Things spinoffs are planned
Stranger Things is one of the most successful shows in the history of Netflix, so the streamer has multiple spinoffs planned.
As for what shape they might take, Ross Duffer says: “They’re going to live in a bit of a different world. There’s going to be connective tissue, but you’re almost anthologizing in a way. Because we’re not Star Wars. We can’t be like, ‘Oh, now we’re on this planet.’”
While Matt Duffer adds: “You’re starting with new characters – it’s like clean slate. You’re not tied up into any knots. There’s something refreshing about it.”
Neither brother will be drawn as to exactly what the major spinoff will be about, Matt told ScreenRant that it “relates in some ways,” to what came before, but “really is a completely different story and a completely different location with completely different actors and characters. So it’s its own. It’s really its own entity.”
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is coming soon
There’s no word on when that live-action spinoff will appear, but an animated prequel titled Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is dropping sometime this year.
Set around the Season 2 period, the show sees cartoon versions of the Hawkins heroes fighting new monsters and unravelling a paranormal mystery terrorising their town.
The animation is in the style of 1980s Saturday morning cartoons, and it could run and run, because as Matt Duffer told Variety, “the kids can stay young forever.”
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