Stranger Things may have ended, but the characters you know and love are back for a new mystery in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, the animated series from showrunner Eric Robles (Glitch Techs, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) and Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer, who also serve as executive producers.
The series, premiering April 23, is set in the Stranger Things universe, between Seasons 2 and 3. In the Season 2 finale, Eleven (played by Millie Bobby Brown) closed the gate at Hawkins Lab, which presented a conundrum for Tales From ’85: How would the series feature creatures from the Upside Down?
“That was the big challenge of developing the show,” Robles, who also produces the series through Flying Bark Productions (What If…?), tells Tudum.
When Ross and Matt Duffer approached him to solve that very problem, he told the creative duo, “Let me do some research on this. Let me really dissect the show, dig into my old memory vault of a lot of ’80s movies I used to watch, and see what I can piece together here.” And once he began that process, the idea for the show “just hit me.”
Tales From ’85 picks up with Eleven (voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt), Mike (Luca Diaz), Will (Benjamin Plessala), Dustin (Braxton Quinney), Lucas (Elisha “EJ” Williams), and Max (In Your Dreams’ Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) in the winter of 1985. The horrors of the Upside Down are finally fading, and the kids have settled back into a normal life of Dungeons & Dragons and snowball fights.
Something terrifying has awakened, however, and the crew must once again take up their flashlights and radios to stop whatever is happening. And while the stakes are high in the show, they’re not apocalyptic. “These kids are not saving the world, they’re saving the town,” Robles notes. “They’re in Hawkins trying to figure out what’s going on in these early episodes.”
So, what’s in store for our heroes during Season 1 of Stranger Things: Tales From ’85? Read on as Robles delivers fresh intel on the new monsters set to wreak havoc in Hawkins, what fans can expect, and more.
What excited you about Stranger Things: Tales From ’85?
Eric Robles: I grew up watching a lot of horror movies and ’80s films like E.T., or The Goonies, or The Lost Boys. These classics just had this sense of kids figuring things out, and that the dangers were real. I love Stranger Things for so many reasons, including the nostalgia, and it just checks all the boxes of things I wanted to do. [With Tales From ’85], we follow a mystery that’s not reset after every episode. The audience can feel like they’re part of the journey with these kids.
How would you describe the tone of Tales From ’85?
Robles: The series is really about these kids protecting Eleven because if this thing blows out of proportion, then the government shows up and everything gets lost. When you’re given that responsibility of taking care of your best friend, then you have to keep it between the kids and not bring the adults into the story. Season 1 of Stranger Things did a great job at that, so we kept that in mind for Tales From ’85. We want the audience to feel that these kids are in danger, the stakes are real, and bad things can happen to anyone. And things do happen to individuals that are very scary in a sense, so that really makes the danger for the kids that much more tangible.
What themes do you explore in the series?
Robles: It’s not just an action show, and it’s not a comedy, but it’s got elements of both. It’s got the thrill of being young, being a kid, and going on these adventures. But then there’s this essence of real danger, real stakes. These kids love each other, and they [feel the] need to protect each other. They are all a family in a sense. We not only have these big adventures, but we’re also able to infuse a lot of heart and real moments into the show.
What are our heroes dealing with in Season 1?
Robles: We left off with Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Brown) attending the Snow Ball dance at the end of Season 2 of Stranger Things, where they kissed for the first time. We start the show with that sense of young love, and I think it’s such a nice place to begin with these kids. Eleven’s excited about her new life, her new friends, [and] being able to experience new things. And everybody’s excited about the potential of the Starcourt Mall opening soon.
[With Lucas and Max], we’re seeing the early stages of that relationship blossom. They finish each other’s sentences and each other’s fights at the same time. The Duffer Brothers wanted to hang out with these two a little bit more, where it wasn’t just always a run-and-gun kind of feel. It was these quieter moments, where these two could be in a mystery, but they’re spending time with each other at the same time.
[In Seasons 1 and 2 of Stranger Things], the kids were running from government agents and monsters from other dimensions, and then it all just went silent after that. For Dustin, there’s this sense of, “Well, what else is there?” So when something shows up that isn’t normal and feels very Upside Down, there’s a sense of excitement for him. He feels the need to establish something that is going to be meaningful for them as a small team, but is going to help everybody else. So, he comes up with the Hawkins Investigators Club. That’s his way of saying, “This is ours. This is how we’re going to protect Hawkins.”
What were some of the challenges of introducing new Upside Down creatures that fit within the Stranger Things universe?
Robles: In the early days, we were like, “We’re going to do Demogorgons, we’re going to do Demodogs.” And the Duffer Brothers were like, “This is your world now. You have to come up with your science here, and what makes these creatures that you’re going to create now different?”
That opened Pandora’s box for us, and we said, “Wow, we can really do some pretty cool stuff.” All of it is still connected to the Upside Down, so there is the DNA of Upside Down creatures in all of our creatures. It’s like Hawkins Lab science meets Upside Down matter. When you put them together, those are the kinds of creatures we have in our world.
I grew up watching Jaws, and we play with the same trope in the sense of, underneath all that snow, there’s something lurking, and you just never know where that thing’s going to come out and grab you. We’ve been able to explore some unique monsters in the series.
How have the Duffer Brothers supported your vision for the series as executive producers?
Robles: [The Duffer Brothers] have been nothing but supportive by giving us their writers to come in as consultants, making sure that we’re all talking about the show correctly, and making sure that we stay true to the characters. Whether with ideas or just the support itself, they’ve consistently been checking in on us.
This is one of the rarest opportunities that we’re ever going to get, to be with the main characters. We get to go back in time and really just hang out with these kids.
How does the show connect with what fans love about the world of Stranger Things?
Robles: It goes back to early conversations with the Duffer Brothers. We wanted to hang out with them more, but the plot just gets big in Stranger Things. One of the many things we talked about was how awesome it would be if you just got to hang out with these kids on these adventures that are not about saving the world. They’re just figuring things out step by step as things get more mysterious. We were able to freeze time and really go on these never before told adventures with them in this timeline. I think that’s what really excited us.
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 premieres April 23, only on Netflix. Learn more about the series here. Plus, get a sneak peek at what’s to come in a new teaser.
