New Years’ Eve won’t be the last we see of the original characters from Stranger Things. To celebrate Stranger Things Day, Netflix has announced a new animated spin-off series, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, that will hold us over after the final season premieres with an all-new adventure for Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and the rest of the gang.
Animated by Flying Bark Productions and produced by the Duffer Brothers and Shawn Levy alongside showrunner Eric Robles, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 is a new story set in the winter of 1985, between Seasons 3 and 4 of the original series. While the characters may remain the same (just in animated form), they face a new threat in this series as they work to unravel a paranormal mystery.
Tales From ‘85 will not feature any of the live-action cast returning to voice their characters in animated form. Instead, the spin-off’s voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will, and Brett Gipson as Hopper, along with additional cast members Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips.
While Tales From ‘85 premieres sometime in 2026, with no set release date as of yet, the release date of the original show’s final season is creeping ever closer. Premiering in batches beginning on November 26, Season 5 is the closing chapter of a story that began in 2016, spanning nearly a decade for a cast that includes Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Sadie Sink, and more. The season’s synopsis is as follows:
The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.
Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 premieres in 2026. Check out a new featurette on the series below:
