Stranger Things Is Officially Fixing Netflix's Spinoff Mistake

Published Nov 12, 2026, 4:01 PM EST Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Stranger Things is officially getting another Netflix spinoff series in the form of the upcoming 2028 release Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, the long wait for this new show is surprisingly good news for the franchise. While Netflix’s sci-fi offerings are varied, from the iconic animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots to the complex alien thriller 3 Body Problem, there can be no debate about what the streaming service’s most famous contribution to the genre is. For better or worse, Stranger Things is the biggest Netflix show of all time. The series needs no introduction, going from a low-key, self-contained story of a small-town mystery to a sprawling, massive blockbuster in its final seasons. Stranger Things made A-list stars of its leads Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Sadie Sink, and propelled its supporting cast to major roles with the show’s outsized popularity. This, of course, as Hamlet famously said, was the rub. As Stranger Things became more popular, the show’s budget got bigger, and what was once a relatively ruthless horror series got surprisingly cautious about killing off characters. As such, the cast of Stranger Things ballooned, and where Netflix’s acclaimed small town sci-fi mystery Dark wrapped up its story after three taut, perfectly paced seasons, Stranger Things dragged out its plot over almost a decade. The show’s first spinoff, Tales from ’85, was a letdown, but its second follow-up, the 2028 spinoff Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, promises to redeem the franchise. Stranger Things Needs A Fresh Start After Tales From '85 & Season 5 Credit: Courtesy of Netflix The rising profile of the Stranger Things cast, as well as the massive scale of its storytelling, resulted in a three-year gap between seasons 3 and 4, and a 3.5 year gap between season 4 and the show’s final outing. Although Netflix’s Wednesday has multiple-year gaps between seasons, the long wait for the final season of Stranger Things was a nail in the coffin for many fans who had grown frustrated with the franchise. The wait made sense since the cast were busy elsewhere, the season was absurdly expensive, and the season had to (theoretically) wrap up a lot of loose ends. However, Stranger Things season 5 profoundly failed to wrap up these subplots, and left a huge portion of the show’s massive global fan base seriously annoyed after a promising return to form in season 4. As such, the fact that Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure won’t arrive until 2028 and has none of season 5’s justifications for its long production may seem worrying. However, the long wait for Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure could prove paradoxically good in the long run. Even though season 5’s mixed reception was blamed in part on the massive hype built up by the 3-year wait for its arrival, the spinoff is a different story. Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure will mark the first live-action comeback from the franchise in three years, meaning there will be enough time for viewers to truly miss the world of the series. Meanwhile, while little is known about Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventures so far, fans do at least know the show will be a prequel set in a new historical era, in a new location, with new characters. This means that, much like IT: Welcome to Derry season 2, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure will mark a true reinvention of the franchise as opposed to a thinly veiled continuation of Stranger Things. Stranger Things Needs A Longer Gap Before Its Next Spinoff MovieStillsDB Netflix’s Stranger Things spinoff series justifies its lengthy wait since it only took four months for Tales from ’85 to arrive on Netflix after season 5’s finale, and that underwhelming outing proved both viewers and critics had had enough of the series. An animated spinoff set in the same era, in the same location, with the same characters, Tales from ’85 was a comprehensive flop compared to Stranger Things. While arguably better than season 5, Tales from ’85 was less of an exciting comeback from the show and more of a drab continuation of Stranger Things that undercut any pathos from the ending of season 5 by bringing back all of its lead characters. The fact that Tales from ’85 also recast the main characters just added insult to injury as, although the real-life age of the original actors made the recasting necessary, this choice still made Tales from ’85 feel more like a carbon copy of the original show than a Stranger Things follow-up. Surprisingly, the announcement of Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure’s 2028 release arrives just as the trend toward multi-year waits between streaming seasons is dying down. Prime Video’s romance novel adaptation Off Campus will release its second season less than 1 year after season 1, while the same streaming service’s historical drama Bloodaxe has preemptively been renewed for a second season before its debut. Meanwhile, at Disney+, the creators of Percy Jackson & the Olympians shot seasons 2 and 3 back-to-back to get the two-year gap between seasons 1 and 2 down to only one year, possibly as a result of the major drop-off in viewership numbers for Wednesday season 2 part 2. While it is impossible to prove that the long wait between seasons of Jenna Ortega’s Addams Family reboot impacted Wednesday’s reception, this was brought up as a factor in many analyses of the middling reception received of both Stranger Things season 5 and Wednesday season 2. Other Worlds Can Be A Proper Franchise Reboot Image via Netflix The argument that Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure’s far-off release date is good might seem paradoxical, since the long wait for Stranger Things season 5 clearly didn’t help the show. However, much like Disney’s Wednesday knock-off Coven Academy has fared unexpectedly well with critics, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure has the benefit of introducing a new show to viewers instead of bringing back a returning story. Yes, big hit shows on rival streamers like Off Campus and Percy Jackson & the Olympians are shortening the breaks between seasons massively in 2026. However, those are breaks between seasons, not the wait before a new show debuts for the first time. As such, the long break is good news. Taking three years between Stranger Things season 5 and the next live-action installment in the franchise, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, is more likely to build suspense and anticipation after many viewers were pretty sick of the show by Tales from ’85 season 2’s underwhelming release. Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz Writers Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock Creator(s) Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer