TV SERIES · 2016–2025 · USA
Stranger Things
- Created by
- Ross Duffer, Matt Duffer
- Network
- Netflix
- Seasons
- 5
- Episodes
- 42
- Studio
- 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre Productions, Upside Down Pictures
31 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
Summary: TMDB
25 Facts From the Making of Stranger Things
- #004
The Duffer brothers prepared a script close to the eventual pilot episode of Stranger Things, along with a 20-page pitch book, to present the series to networks.
- #005
The Duffers pitched Stranger Things to roughly 15 cable networks.
- #006
The networks asked the Duffers either to turn Stranger Things into a children's series or to remove the children and center it on Hopper's investigation into the paranormal.
- #007
After reading the pilot, Netflix bought the entire first season of Stranger Things for a sum that was not disclosed.
- #008
Stranger Things was announced in April 2015 for a 2016 release.
- #009
According to the Duffer Brothers, Netflix had already gained recognition for original programming such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, with well-known producers attached, when the brothers pitched Stranger Things to the company.
- #010
The Duffer Brothers said Netflix was ready to give upcoming producers like them a chance at the time of their pitch.
- #013
Stranger Things was originally known as Montauk, with its setting in Montauk, New York, and nearby Long Island locations.
- #014
The Duffer brothers chose Montauk partly because of its Spielberg ties: the film Jaws used Montauk for the fictional setting of Amity Island.
- #015
After changing the narrative to the fictional town of Hawkins, the Duffer brothers felt they could do things to the town, such as placing it under quarantine, that they could not envision with a real location.
- #016
Stranger Things received its title after Netflix's Ted Sarandos directed the creators to find a new name so the series could be marketed to the public.
- #017
The Duffer brothers drew on a copy of Stephen King's Firestarter novel when weighing the font and look of the title, and compiled a long list of possible alternatives.
- #018
The title Stranger Things was chosen because it echoed the sound of another Stephen King novel, Needful Things.
- #019
Matt Duffer said the brothers had a lot of heated arguments over the final title of Stranger Things.
- #020
To pitch Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers used images, footage and music from classic 1970s and 1980s films, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist, Hellraiser, Stand by Me, Firestarter, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Jaws, to establish the series' tone.
- #021
Stranger Things began when the Duffer brothers considered expanding the premise of the 2013 film Prisoners, about a father's moral struggles after his daughter is kidnapped, into a serialized television story of roughly eight hours.
- #022
While developing the missing-child element of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers sought to bring in "childlike sensibilities" and explored the notion of a monster capable of consuming humans.
- #023
The Duffer brothers regarded the combination of these ideas as "the best thing ever" for Stranger Things.
- #024
To ground the monster of Stranger Things in science rather than something spiritual, the creators considered bizarre Cold War experiments such as MKUltra.
- #025
The creators of Stranger Things drew on their own personal inspirations from the 1980s, the decade in which they were born, and crafted the series in the realm of science fiction and horror.
- #026
The Duffer brothers have cited Stephen King novels, films by Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Wes Craven and Guillermo del Toro, and titles such as Star Wars, Alien and Stand by Me among their influences on Stranger Things.
- #027
The Duffers have said they may have drawn unintentionally on other works, including Beyond the Black Rainbow and D.A.R.Y.L., which they identified after reviewing fan feedback on Stranger Things.
- #028
Stranger Things was made for Netflix, which freed the Duffer brothers from the typical 22-episode broadcast format and led them to choose an eight-episode season.
- #029
The Duffers worried that a 22-episode broadcast season would make it hard to tell a cinematic story, so the eight-episode order gave them room for characterization alongside narrative development.
- #030
The Duffers deliberately left unresolved threads at the end of the first season to suggest a bigger mythology that could be explored in further seasons if Netflix greenlit more.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Stranger Things — Wikipedia
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