In the early days of Stranger Things, it was easy to keep up with the show’s mythology, but as the show’s popularity grew, the mythology created by the Duffer Brothers expanded to include comic books, novels, and stage plays. Now, the first official TV series spin-off from the original show, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, will explore all-new elements of the franchise, with the show set between the events of Seasons 2 and 3. Before the show has even premiered, the first trailers have sparked speculation about the show retconning elements of the original series, as this footage shows remarkable events not addressed anywhere else in the franchise. Speaking with MovieWeb, showrunner of Tales from ’85 Eric Robles has explained how the show’s continuity fits into the overall canon of the series, or rather, how it might not fit into the overall canon. When asked if the series is canon, Robles explained:
“Look, that’s up to the Duffer Brothers to decide how much canon they want or not. What this is, is it’s canon in the sense of, are we staying true to the characters, their personalities? That part of it is canon. The personality part is canon, because we are staying as true as we can to the personalities of the characters. How the stories are evolving, and how big this thing can get, depending on the love, and if everybody wants more of this stuff, then it just starts becoming an organic thing of itself. It starts telling its own narrative. So I can’t say if it’s canon, because I don’t at this point know, it’s just growing into this organic, fun story. But what is canon is the personalities, it is the characters.”
With this being a Netflix series, Robles and his team weren’t alone in developing it, as the Duffer Brothers, in addition to other filmmakers involved with the live-action series, had a say in the story that unfolds in Tales from ’85. Robles revealed, “We have so much support from Matt and Ross, the Duffer brothers. Early days, even the consultants that we had were their writers. So when you’re watching the show, there is the sense of a grounded, Stranger Things-like reality that’s happening here. Not only that, our head writer is Caitlin Schneiderhan, who was also a writer on the live-action [series] … The excitement for this show is such a genuine, pure excitement, where she joined the show to make sure that we stayed as true as we could to the personalities, to the relationships, to everything that’s happening.”

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Stranger Things is a lot of things to a lot of people, and while some prefer the horror, others prefer the sci-fi. Some prefer the friendships, others prefer the ’80s aesthetic. From Robles’ perspective, the essence of what makes the series so effective is the dynamic between compelling characters. He detailed:
“At its core, Stranger Things isn’t about monsters, it’s about relationships, and that’s what we’re continuing, is the story of these relationships that are growing. You get to spend time with Lucas and Max in a way that you didn’t have time for in live-action, or you get to spend time with Dustin on new adventures, and what he’s scheming up. This is the fun that we’re promising. But as far as the word ‘canon,’ I can’t promise you that. All I can promise you is we’re going to stay true ‘canon’ to the personalities of these characters, and then we’ll see where the adventures grow from there.”

Netflix

With both Stranger Things and Tales from ’85 being set in the ’80s, and with Robles himself growing up in the ’80s, he compared the issue of retcons and canon to another staple of that decade, which played a prominent part of Season 2 of the core series.

“We talk about, a lot of times, The Real Ghostbusters. I remember growing up and watching Ghostbusters, the movie, and then watching The Real Ghostbusters. For me, back then as a kid of the ’80s, that was just the biggest gift,” the showrunner recalled. “I wasn’t trying to formulate what happened, when I watched Ghostbusters II, I wasn’t like, ‘How come Egon’s not talking about the Sandman? How come he’s not talking about the Boogeyman? And what happened in that episode?’ I was just like, ‘Oh, man, the adventures of The Real Ghostbusters, and then there was the Sandman episode…’ I just got so caught up in the joy of hanging out with these characters, and I really hope that, at the end of the day, that the fans are just going to just go along for the ride.” At this point, without the series having officially premiered, there hasn’t been anything shown in any trailers for Tales from ’85 that actively contradicts what we’ve seen in the live-action series. We do know, however, that the animated spin-off features characters and monsters that were never mentioned in the five seasons of Stranger Things, which ignited the speculation about this series being a retcon.

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85

Release Date

April 23, 2026

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Eric Robles

Directors

Phil Allora

Writers

Jennifer Muro

Franchise(s)

Stranger Things

Brooklyn Davey Norstedt

Eleven

Odessa A’zion

Nikki Baxter