Netflix announces a Stranger Things animated spinoff series

Stranger Things may be coming to a close (whenever the next season comes out), but the universe of the show is living on in an animated show announced by Netflix.

Details on the show are scarce: Netflix ordered a series order for the as-yet untitled show set within the universe. There’s no word on when the show would premiere, much like season 5 of Stranger Things. Also like the main show, the Duffer Brothers see the animated spin-off as a way to emulate and pay homage to the pop culture of their youth.

“We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,” the brothers said in a statement.

The Duffers will be executive producing the series, along with Eric Robles, who previously worked on Fanboy & Chum Chum and Glitch Techs.

This is the first Stranger Things spinoff announcement (not counting the stage play adaptation), though possibly not the last. The show has been a major hit for Netflix, and the Duffers have said they’re not opposed to revisiting the Upside Down and its accompanying universe, so long as they “feel the pull of ‘God I really want to do this.’”

The Duffers teased to Variety there was a spinoff in the works getting developed “in parallel” with season 5, of which Matt Duffer said: “Even if we took the Stranger Things title off of it, I’m so, so excited about it. But it is not… It’s going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.”

So how different will the Upside Down look in this spinoff? With animation, seems like the world is their (upside down) oyster.