Stranger Things Returns Next Week With Ten New Episodes

Netflix animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 returns much sooner than many fans may have guessed. The show’s second season drops on Sept. 17, just a few months after the first season, which aired on April 23. The news release announcing this return date provides the following description of what’s to come: “With Valentine’s Day on the way, the gang must uncover the truth behind ghostly apparitions and a swarm of strange creatures causing chaos around town.”

For those unfamiliar with Tales from ’85, it is an animated spin-off of Stranger Things set between the main show’s second and third seasons. The series was officially greenlit for a second season shortly after its release. Considering the exceptionally quick turnaround time, animation studio Flying Bark Productions was likely working on the next batch of episodes before then.

Is Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 worth watching?

The first season of Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 received a mixed response from critics and fans, earning a 63% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 52% users’ score. While some praised the show for recapturing the charm from earlier seasons of Stranger Things, others criticized it as a perfunctory midquel.

Eric Robles and Jennifer Muro developed the first season, and Robles served as showrunner. The original creators, The Duffer Brothers, were executive producers. Netflix Animation Studios, Upside Down Pictures, 21 Laps Entertainment, and Flying Bark Productions produced the series. Flying Bark is known for contributing animation to Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, Marvel’s What If…?, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and other projects.

With Stranger Things ending its 42-episode run on Dec. 31, 2025, a spinoff arrived as no surprise. The franchise proved tremendously popular, and its third season set the record for the most-watched original Netflix series.

As of 2023, a live-action spinoff was in development, but nothing has been formally announced.

Source: Polygon