Stranger Things Spin-Off Trailer Drops, Release Date Finally Revealed
Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an animated spin-off from showrunner and executive producer Eric Robles, premiering this spring.
Netflix just dropped the first trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From '85, the animated spinoff that hops back to peak Hawkins-era chaos. It is not the live-action cast voicing the kids, and the show leans into that on purpose: a time-capsule adventure that lets the gang be the gang without aging up another minute.
Release date and the setup
Tales From '85 hits Netflix on April 23, 2026. It is set in the winter of 1985, which puts it squarely between the mall mayhem of Season 3 and the lead-up to Season 4. The Upside Down threat has cooled off (for now), snow is literally on the ground, and the kids have returned to D&D, snowball fights, and pretending life is normal. Naturally, something under the ice wakes up and ruins that plan. Is it tied to the Upside Down? Hawkins Lab? Something new entirely? The show pitches it as an untold chapter in the Stranger Things timeline, with the crew racing to save their town all over again.
Who is making this and what kind of animated show is it?
Eric Robles is the showrunner and an executive producer, which tells you right away this is not just a kiddie tie-in. The Duffer Brothers are executive producing too, alongside Hilary Leavitt (via Upside Down Pictures), Shawn Levy (via 21 Laps), and Dan Cohen. Animation is by Flying Bark Productions. The trailer frames it like a legit, peril-heavy adventure that just happens to be animated, not a goofball side quest.
"We get to spend time with these kids in a way that you did not have time to in the flagship series. We were able to freeze time and really go on these never before told adventures with them in this timeline.
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 that are very scary in a sense, so that really makes the danger for the kids that much more tangible."
Voice cast
New timeline, new voices. Here is who is playing who:
- Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven
- Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max
- Luca Diaz as Mike
- Elisha "EJ" Williams as Lucas
- Braxton Quinney as Dustin
- Benjamin Plessala as Will
- Brett Gipson as Hopper
- Jeremy Jordan as Steve
- Odessa A'zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips in undisclosed roles
The pitch, in plain English
The show freezes the kids at their 1985 sweet spot and sends them on a brand-new, scary mystery under the snow in Hawkins. It treats the danger like the real deal, not Saturday morning fluff, and uses animation to do the kind of set-piece-y, 'what if' adventure the main series did not have the room to explore. Trailer is out now; full season lands April 23.