Rumors have been flowing of multiple Stranger Things spin-offs in the works. While the validity of this claim varies, there are a few series that fans would love to see after Stranger Things 4. Stranger Things has reached critical acclaim on the streaming platform Netflix. This series first premiered in 2016 and has since, released three successful seasons. Its fourth season, teased to follow a haunted house storyline, is expected to drop sometime in 2022. The show follows a group of young children who live in the supernatural-plagued down of Hawkins, Indiana.
While the children and their peers find themselves trying to fight for safety against the Upside Down and the evil entities who created it, they befriend close allies and love interests. The series kickstarted the bustling Hollywood careers of young actors Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Gaten Matarazzo. It also welcomed some familiar faces like David Harbour as the town's cranky cop and 90s icon Winona Ryder as a divorced mother-of-two.
The rumors of a Stranger Things spinoff series revolve around Brown heading a series focused on her character Eleven. Deadline has reported that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos called the series a "franchise being born." They go on to emphasize the plural tense that Sarandos used to speak of the "spinoffs" and wrote that there has been "talk" regarding Brown's involvement. While fans aren't rejecting the rumored Eleven-focused spin-off, given that she's the lead character that often guides the series, many are hoping for more out-of-the-box content.
Dustin at Camp
Fans would love to see more of their favorite curly-haired Stranger Things culprit Dustin Henderson at summer camp. This storyline was teased throughout the third season. First, Dustin had a hilarious opener, arriving home from camp to a seemingly empty house. However, he was only being fooled by his friends. As he beings to hear creaking noises, he arms himself with a can of hairspray, subsequently spraying it in the eyes of his close friend, Lucas Sinclair.
The post-camp antics didn't stop there. Dustin also returned home with a long-distance girlfriend, Suzie. Although Suzie quickly became a hated character after forcing Dustin to sing with her during a pretty pivotal moment in his "saving the world" endeavors.
The creators of Stranger Things could easily do a short series about Dustin's adventures at camp. Given its light-hearted nature, it would likely redeem Suzie's character.
Let's talk about Billy
Introduced in season two was the bad boy Billy Hargrove and his sister Max Mayfield. The step-siblings have a love-hate relationship, leaning towards the hate side. While Max was able to escape his tyranny by joining the supernatural-fighting gang of nerds, Billy continued to find trouble. Unfortunately, this led to his eventual death in season three.
His death was an act of heroism. During a scary sequence, he sacrificed himself to the people-eating Mind Flayer in order to stall it off of his sister and her friends. This drove in the multi-dimensional aspect of his character, in addition to his fleshed-out backstory of his abusive father and distant mother. A spin-off series focused on Billy and Max would not only entertain fans, given that their rough siblinghood was already an area of focus in the series, but would also give more context to Billy's jerkish behavior.
Jim Hopper and his daughter
Jerk-turned-lovable-cop Jim Hopper would rock a Stranger Things spin-off as he is already a fan-favorite character. Not only that, but he has a mysterious backstory that has yet to be told in detail. It was made clear in the first season that he suffered through a tremendous loss and found himself slacking off on his job and excessively drinking.
It was later revealed that he had a young daughter, Sara Hopper, who he lost to cancer. This led to the destruction of his marriage and his eventual downfall. It would give the beloved character great justice to do a prequel series focusing on the relationship between the character and his daughter, it can even go as far back to show his budding relationship with his now ex-wife. Or, if the character is recovered from the Upside Down, a spin-off could focus on the cop's father relationship with Eleven while flashing back to his introduction to fatherhood with Sara.
Due to Hopper's vague backstory, there's a lot to play around with there. And nowadays, David Harbour's name and immense talent is enough to pull in the views. Stranger Things has an entire world to explore and while it's a fool-proof idea to keep some fan-favorites in the mix, it would be a total miss if they didn't explore into the lives of the already-established background characters.