Stranger Things


Stranger Things is an American television series created by the Duffer Brothers for Netflix. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the first season was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016. The second and third seasons followed in October 2017 and July 2019, respectively, and the fourth season was released in two parts in May and July 2022. The fifth and final season was released in three volumes, including the finale, in November and December 2025. The show combines elements of horror, science fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, and drama.
Set in the 1980s, the series centers on the residents of the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, after a young girl with psychokinetic abilities, named Eleven, inadvertently creates a wormhole known as the Upside Down, at a nearby secretive government research facility, connecting Earth to a hostile realm called the Abyss. The cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin, Paul Reiser, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Nell Fisher.
The Duffer Brothers developed Stranger Things as a blend of investigative drama and supernatural horror, infused with childlike wonder and references to the popular culture of the 1980s. Several thematic and directorial elements were inspired by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Stephen King, Wes Craven, H. P. Lovecraft, and FromSoftware. The show also drew inspiration from Cold War–era experiments and conspiracy theories involving secret government programs.
Stranger Things has received positive reviews throughout its run, with praise for its characterization, atmosphere, acting, direction, writing, and homage to 1980s cinema, making it a touchstone of 1980s nostalgia. It has garnered many accolades and is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Stranger Things is a flagship series for Netflix, drawing record viewership with each season's release. The series has expanded into a media franchise, including an animated spin-off, Stranger Things: Tales from '85, and a prequel stage play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. It has also inspired several books, comics, tie-in media, a pop-up shop, and a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing starter set game based on the series.

Overview

Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. Hawkins is described as "the town where nothing ever happens" in the second season. The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy, but also secretly experiments with the paranormal and supernatural, sometimes with human test subjects. They inadvertently create a portal to an alternate dimension referred to as the Upside Down, whose presence begins to affect the residents of Hawkins in unusual ways.
The first season begins on November 6, 1983, when Will Byers is abducted by a creature from the Upside Down, dubbed the "Demogorgon". His mother Joyce, police chief Jim Hopper, and a group of volunteers search for him. A young psychokinetic girl named Eleven escapes from Hawkins Lab and is found by Will's friends, Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair. Eleven befriends and assists them in their efforts to find Will. Mike's older sister Nancy and Will's older brother Jonathan learn about the Demogorgon and the existence of the Upside Down. Will is eventually found alive, while Eleven disappears after killing the Demogorgon.
The second season is set 11 months later, between October and November 1984. Joyce is dating her former classmate Bob Newby, but they discover that Will is still affected by a shadowy entity from the Upside Down. Will's friends and family learn that anything connected to the Upside Down is part of a hive mind known as the Mind Flayer. Lucas earns the affection of a new classmate, Max Mayfield, while Dustin teams up with Nancy's ex-boyfriend Steve Harrington to fend off a horde of adolescent Demogorgons—dubbed "Demodogs"—which kill Bob and threaten the rest of their friends. Eleven reappears and closes the gate to the Upside Down underneath Hawkins Laboratory.
The third season is set nine months later, in the days leading up to the Fourth of July celebrations in 1985. The new Starcourt Mall becomes the center of attention for Hawkins residents. Hopper adopts Eleven and becomes increasingly concerned about her relationship with Mike. Dustin, Steve and his coworker Robin Buckley, and Lucas's younger sister Erica discover that a secret Soviet laboratory beneath Starcourt is attempting to reopen the gateway to the Upside Down. Meanwhile, the Mind Flayer possesses Max's stepbrother, Billy Hargrove, and begins creating physical vessels made of melted flesh to carry out its will. Eleven loses her powers, Billy dies, and Hopper seemingly dies when the Soviets' gate is closed.
The fourth season is set eight months later, in March 1986. The Byers family and Eleven have moved to Lenora, California for a fresh start. In Hawkins, multiple teenagers are murdered by the Mind Flayer's partner and Hawkins Laboratory's first test subject—later dubbed Vecna—to open gates between Hawkins and the Upside Down. Vecna frames Dustin's friend Eddie Munson for the murders and targets Max as his fourth victim. To help Eleven regain her powers, Dr. Sam Owens takes her to a secure facility. Joyce and Murray Bauman learn that Hopper survived but was captured by Soviets, so they rescue him from a gulag in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Eleven regains her powers, but Vecna's forces kill Eddie, cause Max to fall into a coma, and open rifts throughout Hawkins.
The fifth and final season is primarily set in November 1987. The military puts Hawkins under quarantine and hunts for Eleven, while the group tracks down Vecna until he kidnaps Nancy and Mike's younger sister, Holly, alongside 11 other children. The Upside Down is discovered to be a wormhole between Hawkins and another dimension known as the Abyss; Vecna plans to use the children to merge the Abyss with Hawkins. The group ultimately rescues the captured children, kills Vecna and the Mind Flayer, and destroys the Upside Down. To prevent the military from creating new psychic test subjects with her blood, Eleven stays behind in the collapsing Upside Down. 18 months later, in May 1989, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max graduate from high school, and Hopper proposes to Joyce. Mike theorizes about how Eleven could have potentially faked her death.

Cast and characters

  • Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, the mother of Will and Jonathan Byers. She is divorced from their father, Lonnie Byers. Protective and strong-willed, she becomes determined to find Will after he goes missing, convinced that his disappearance is paranormal in nature.
  • David Harbour as Jim Hopper, the chief of Hawkins Police Department. After his young daughter Sara died of cancer, Hopper divorced and lapsed into alcoholism. He becomes more responsible, helping Joyce investigate the truth behind Will's disappearance, and adopting Eleven as his daughter. He and Joyce have feelings for each other.
  • Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, middle child and the only son of Karen and Ted Wheeler, brother of Nancy and Holly, and one of Will Byers's three close friends. He is an intelligent and conscientious student and is committed to his friends. He develops romantic feelings for Eleven and later dates her.
  • Millie Bobby Brown as Jane "El" Hopper / Eleven, a girl with telepathic and psychokinetic abilities as a result of being one of Dr. Brenner's subjects from Hawkins National Laboratory. She escapes the lab and eventually becomes an adoptive daughter to Jim Hopper and takes his surname, and adjusts to living a normal life with the help of Mike and his friends.
  • Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, one of Will Byers's friends. His cleidocranial dysplasia causes him to lisp. In the second season, he is proud of his new front teeth and is attracted to Max. In season three, he gets a girlfriend, Suzie, who he met at summer camp.
  • Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, one of Will's friends. He is wary of Eleven but later befriends her. In season two, he is one of Max's love interests and eventually becomes her boyfriend. In season four, he becomes more popular at school after joining the Hawkins High basketball team, which briefly puts him at odds with his regular friend group.
  • Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, daughter of Karen and Ted and older sister of Mike and Holly. Studious and rule-abiding, Nancy finds another side of herself while investigating Hawkins Lab and the death of her friend Barbara. In the first two seasons, she is the girlfriend of Steve Harrington, but breaks up with him and then dates Jonathan Byers. She is an aspiring journalist.
  • Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, the older brother of Will Byers and the son of Joyce Byers. He is a quiet and kind-hearted teenager, an outsider at school, and an aspiring photographer. He is close with his mother and brother, and he becomes the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler.
  • Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, mother of Nancy, Mike, and Holly, who is mostly unaware of her children's activities for much of the series.
  • Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner, the scientist in charge of Hawkins Laboratory and training Eleven. Manipulative and remote, he and his team search for Eleven in season one after she escapes. He is referred to as "Papa" by Eleven. In season 4, he returns to help Eleven regain her powers and protect her from the government agents hunting her down.
  • Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, the son of Joyce Byers and younger brother of Jonathan Byers. He is captured by a monster from the Upside Down in season one. He later develops a connection to the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer due to his capture. He struggles with his sexuality and unrequited feelings for Mike, and comes out as gay in season five.
  • Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, Billy's younger stepsister and a tomboy who catches the attention of both Lucas and Dustin, eventually dating Lucas. In season four, she becomes one of the teens targeted by Vecna.
  • Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, a popular high school student and the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler. He ostracizes Jonathan Byers but later befriends him. He and Nancy break up in season two but remain friends. He is known as the "babysitter" of the group, often left to look after the kids, particularly Dustin, with whom he forms a strong rapport.
  • Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove, Max's violent, unpredictable, and abusive older stepbrother. He challenges Steve's popularity. In season three, he is controlled by the Mind Flayer and dies in the process.
  • Sean Astin as Bob Newby, a former schoolmate of Joyce and Hopper who runs the Hawkins RadioShack. He is Joyce's boyfriend, putting him at odds with Hopper. He dies after being attacked by creatures from the Upside Down.
  • Paul Reiser as Dr. Sam Owens, a Department of Energy executive who replaces Brenner as director of Hawkins Laboratory. He is committed to scientific research yet empathetic to the residents of Hawkins, and he helps Hopper adopt Eleven as his legal daughter. He returns with Brenner in season four to help Eleven regain her powers and to protect her from government agents hunting her.
  • Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, a girl who works alongside Steve at the mall ice cream shop. She later comes out as a lesbian to him. She and Steve become close friends, working together at Scoops Ahoy and later at the video store. In season five, she begins dating her classmate Vickie, a volunteer nurse.
  • Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair, Lucas's younger sister who helps the group. She is very smart and has an avid interest in D&D.
  • Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, a conspiracy theorist, private investigator, and old acquaintance of Hopper who assists Nancy and Jonathan, and later Hopper and Joyce.
  • Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay, the sinister leader of the military unit dispatched to Hawkins after the opening of rifts to the Upside Down. She oversees a research base installed within the Upside Down itself.
  • Jamie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel / One / Vecna / Mr. Whatsit, a murderous psychic being from the Upside Down. Having attained supernatural abilities as a child, he murdered his family and was subsequently placed under Brenner's care. Flashbacks in season four reveal that Eleven banished him to another dimension, when she was eight years old, where he was disfigured and joined Mind Flayer's hive-mind.
  • Nell Fisher and Anniston and Tinsley Price as Holly Wheeler, Nancy and Mike's younger sister and Karen's youngest child.