Netflix Officially Brings Stranger Things Back & It's Full Stephen King

Published Sep 21, 2026, 6:45 PM EDT

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

Stranger Things is officially back, and this time, it has gone full Stephen King, but with a twist. One of Netflix’s biggest TV hits to date is Stranger Things, created by the Duffer Brothers. Stranger Things was a huge success since its debut in 2016, and its popularity only grew with every season. Despite its divisive final season and finale in 2025, Stranger Things is now one of the best TV shows of all time, and it isn’t quite over yet.

There are many more stories from Hawkins, the lab, and the characters of Stranger Things to be told, and thanks to them, the show is now a franchise. Stranger Things has spawned various books, comics, games, and even a stage play, and it has now returned to TV with its first spinoff show. Titled Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85, it’s an animated spinoff set in the winter of 1985, thus being set between seasons 2 and 3 of the main show.

Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 debuted on Netflix in April 2026 to mixed reactions from critics. Still, the show was quickly renewed for a second season, released on September 17, 2026. Season 2 catches up with Eleven and her friends shortly after the events of the first season, and sees them facing a threat like no other before or after the winter of 1985: a ghost, but it’s the way that creature operates that made Stranger Things go full Stephen King.

Stranger Things: Tales From’85’s Ghost Villain Copies Pennywise’s Needs

Image via Netflix

Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 Season 2

Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 season 2 is set during Valentine’s Day, but the plans of some of the kids are interrupted by a new monstrous presence in Hawkins. Eleven and her friends (including their new friend, Nikki), a.k.a. the Hawkins Investigators Club, learn of a new, mysterious threat terrorizing some Hawkins residents: a ghost, as well as some glowing flowers that suddenly grew in certain parts of town.

The HIC first believes it’s the ghost of local legend Bloodaxe Bill, but the more they investigate and come across this ghostly presence, the kids make a huge discovery: the ghost is feeding off their fear and that of every other Hawkins resident near the glowing flowers, with small, flying Demogorgon-like creatures taking that energy to feed a bigger threat. As it turns out, the source of the flowers, the ghost, and a massive tree-like monster is Daniel, season 1’s antagonist, who survived being eaten by the monster.

In his desperate attempts to make it out of the Upside Down, he projected his mind into the monster tree. The ghost feeding on the fear of Hawkins’ residents is just like Pennywise does in Stephen King’s It. Pennywise is the preferred shape of the shapeshifting creature the Losers refer to as “It”, and it feeds on the fear of its victims, which is why it takes the shape of their biggest fears.

Unlike Dan/the ghost in Tales From ‘85, Pennywise feeds itself and not another, bigger creature, and it’s not trying to escape a parallel universe. Of course, there are big differences between Dan and Pennywise, but fear being their source of energy is one of the most direct and obvious Stephen King references in the entire Stranger Things franchise.

Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85’s Ghost Has A Worse Ending Than Pennywise’s

Image via Netflix

Something that Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 definitely surpassed Pennywise in is how bad the ending of season 2’s villain is. As great as his stories are, it’s no secret that Stephen King often gives them weak endings, and It is one of the biggest examples of this. All the fear, suspense, and mystery built around It crashes down when the Losers confront it in its giant female spider form, with its defeat being quick.

Tales From ‘85 season 2 has an even worse ending for Dan/the ghost, as all the kids had to do was be brave (as Mike did to break free from the tree monster), burn the flowers, and close the gate that was starting to open, which are either predictable or underwhelming paths. The biggest problem, however, is that Dan, what he did, and his defeat serve no real purpose in the Stranger Things franchise, and even within their own show they quickly become irrelevant.

A ghost villain could have been an interesting addition to the Stranger Things lore if it hadn’t been linked to the past season’s villain and, instead, had been given a proper connection to the Upside Down or even Vecna himself. It’s to be seen if Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 will return for another season, but if it does, it will need a brand new and original villain.

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  Brooklyn Davey Norstedt

  Eleven (voice)

• Jolie Hoang-Rappaport

  Max (voice)