By the time Stranger Things wraps at year’s end, creators Matt and Ross Duffer will have taken their talents over to Paramount.
Days ago, reports began to surface alleging the two brothers were potentially looking to leave the streamer to make film and TV for the Mission: Impossible studio. Now, it’s official: per industry journalist Matt Belloni, the Duffers will be over at Paramount going forward. Their decision apparently came down to the theaters; the brothers wanted their films to hit the big screen, which Netflix isn’t really keen on doing unless said film could be a potential Oscar winner, high-profile directors really fight for it, or it gets so popular that they may as well come to theaters. To date, the brothers have only released one film, the 2015 psychological thriller Hidden.
With the Duffers gone, this marks Netflix’s first big talent shakeup in the wake of the recent, equally big acquisition of Paramount by longtime partner Skydance. According to Variety, the duo’s future output will emphasize tentpole movies, which is typically the studio’s bread and butter. Despite the move, they’ll still have a presence at Netflix for a while: their production company, Upside Down Productions, is working on an animated Stranger Things prequel Tales of 85 due 2026 and a second unannounced spinoff. There’s also the non-Stranger series The Boroughs and Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, which they’re executive producing and will also arrive in 2026.
As for the core Stranger Things show, it releases in three parts on November 26, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve.
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