{"id":423057,"date":"2026-04-29T07:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T07:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:34:16","slug":"tales-from-85-renewed-for-season-2-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423057\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales from \u201885′ Renewed for Season 2: Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNetflix<\/a> has renewed the Duffer Brothers<\/a>\u2019 animated spinoff Stranger Things<\/a>: Tales From \u201885 for a second season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal that the series, from animation<\/a> veteran and showrunner Eric Robles, will return to Hawkins and the Upside Down sometime this fall. The show\u2019s renewal comes just four days after season one\u2019s debut<\/a>, which saw Tales From \u201885 take the No. 7 spot on the streamer\u2019s global top 10 list with 2.8 million views.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 10-episode first season<\/a> has also officially landed in Netflix\u2019s top 15 animated series debuts of all time. The spinoff\u2019s renewal and season one success comes just four months after Stranger Things proper \u2014 the Duffer brothers\u2019 original live-action series \u2014\u00a0concluded<\/a> its decade-long, five-season run at the end of 2025. Following the release of that massive<\/a> final season, the Stranger Things franchise<\/a> has continued to perform across social media and with audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCollectively, all five seasons of the Duffers- and Shawn Levy-produced series starring Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour and Winona Ryder have accumulated 1.5 billion views through March 2026 since their premieres. Interest in season five has also propelled the show\u2019s previous four seasons back into the global top 10 for eight weeks \u2014 another record-breaker for the series and streamer.\u00a0As part of the Stranger Things 2025 campaign, the fifth season<\/a> also garnered 5.75 billion owned social impressions. Together, the show has amassed nearly 10 billion owned social impressions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis also follows the season five soundtrack impact, including Prince\u2019s \u201cPurple Rain\u201d seeing a surge in Gen Z streams, and Diana Ross\u2019 \u201cUpside Down\u201d garnering a spike in global searches. The Stranger Things season five launch also produced the largest consumer products program in Netflix\u2019s history and bump in ticket sales (to the highest levels since the initial launch) of the Tony Award-winning Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which was recently filmed<\/a> with the original Broadway cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Stranger Things universe is alive and well on the screen, stage, in stores and at Netflix House<\/a>, with Tales From \u201885 being the latest investment by Netflix to see success among audiences. In wake of the animated spinoff\u2019s renewal and its live-action predecessor\u2019s ongoing impact, Robles spoke with The Hollywood Reporter exclusively below and teased what fans can expect from season two and when they will continue to expand the Stranger Things universe.<\/p>\n

\n\t***\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you were discussing extending the Stranger Things universe, what material was in your \u201ccontent bible\u201d? What did you have room to play around with, and what couldn\u2019t you do?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe assignment was, \u201cHey, Eric, do you want to build this fun frozen-in-time moment with these kids, where you think back to shows that we grew up watching in the \u201980s?\u201d For myself, that was The Real Ghostbusters. Back then, just to be given an animated version of more adventures with the team was a dream come true. But if you\u2019re familiar with The Real Ghostbusters, you know Ghostbusters II came out, and it wasn\u2019t like, \u201cHow come they don\u2019t talk about the Boogeyman?\u201d \u2014 because the Boogeyman was a big part of the animated series. There were so many adventures within the animated series that were never discussed in the movies.\u00a0So [Matt and Ross Duffer] said, \u201cWe want you to have these great adventures with these lovable kids at a time when they weren\u2019t worrying about saving the world. It\u2019s just about saving Hawkins. Could we have fun opening up this sandbox between seasons two and three, and tell these fun adventures with these kids being kids, riding bikes, solving mysteries?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut we also have to respect certain rules and parameters. The Duffer brothers didn\u2019t want us to go down their specific lore. Because once we open that gate and have the Mind Flayer or Vecna come out, it would have destroyed what they\u2019d already built. If you\u2019re a hardcore fan, you can easily plop us on and enjoy. When we talk about what is canon, I\u2019ll tell you: It\u2019s the personalities of these characters. We had to make sure we stayed true. If we learn a little bit more about them, it technically still fits into their timeline. It\u2019s character growth, as opposed to world-building.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf we did animated seasons two and three, then it would probably be more of these mundane situations, and then what can kids look forward to? Especially a younger audience that is going to be introduced to the world of Stranger Things through this show. Is it perfectly aligned with the timeline? No. But it started becoming this organic, fun adventure, and that\u2019s what our entire crew has been doing for decades best. We tell stories that entertain and make characters grow.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you\u2019re saying this is more soft canon than hard canon?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tExactly. There\u2019s no possible way pumpkins were in those fields. But the science makes sense \u2014 at Eugene\u2019s farm, you had all those vines and dead Demodogs, and Hawkins Lab had to do the big cleanup in that area. We built this scientist who created this serum and brought dead plant matter back to life, so when those spores trigger and land on any organic matter, it would technically be infected and would create something like that. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat was actually the most difficult part of the assignment. In the early days of development, when Netflix approached me about this, the problem was \u2014 and many had tried prior to me \u2014 that the Duffer brothers wanted [the story] to take place inside [seasons] two and three \u2014\u00a0but you can\u2019t open up gates. How do you create creatures if the gates are closed? So I went back to my library of \u201880s films that I used to watch, that my dad used to make me watch with him, and there was Re-Animator. This classic \u201880s film gave me the idea. If we can have Hawkins lab science meet Upside Down matter as they did in Re-Animator, then we can open up this whole new kind of adventure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBraxton Quinney as Dustin, Benjamin Plessala as Will, Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven and Luca Diaz as Mike in Stranger Things: Tales From \u201985.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s so much about the animation industry and how the practical process has changed between now and 20 years ago. Some of that comes through in the series. What are some of the bigger advances that impacted your work on this action-filled YA horror franchise show?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMy first show was Fanboy and Chum on Nickelodeon. That was a squash and stretch show. Back then, CG was not able to do squash and stretch, and my goal was to do a very old school Looney Tunes-type squash and stretch show with CG. They kept telling me, \u201cRobles, you can\u2019t do that. You\u2019re gonna break the rings.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, we can do this. We can figure this out.\u201d To see the evolution, how we figured that out, even in those early days of CG, and what you can do with CG now, is amazing. Especially with a show like Stranger Things. The lighting, colors and textures \u2014 all these amazing things you\u2019re seeing up on that screen. When the kids have the flashlights, the lens flares? There\u2019s all these little details. In every shot, you\u2019ll see what we call motes, and it\u2019s all those dust particles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve been given a second season, but how much further do you see this series going beyond two?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI have a number in my head. This is going to be a really fun ride for the story that I want to tell. But I don\u2019t plan to overstay my welcome. I\u2019m giving you a very vague answer, but I have an idea of what feels right for me, creatively, in terms of the story introducing Nikki Baxter \u2014 her not being around anymore and what that means. Technically, she doesn\u2019t fit into the timeline. It\u2019s not in the cards, in the sense that this was developed when the Duffers were in season four [postproduction]. What I can say is that I understand the responsibility of ending this story for this series correctly \u2014\u00a0what the kids process, how they move forward after that, how it connects perfectly to season three and why they don\u2019t talk about her.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it going to be perfect? I don\u2019t know. But I\u2019m going to do my best with my team. It\u2019s not going to satisfy everybody. That is the most impossible task ever. But I can tell you that we will satisfy this story, Tales From \u201885.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the season finale, you tease Nikki as a LEGO character when she joins the Hawkins Investigators Club to play D&D. Netflix has done LEGO versions, and you\u2019ve gotten to take a few liberties with Stranger Things style through its \u201cneon\u201d animation aesthetic. Would you play with your styling in any way, even in a one-off episode?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe take ourselves a little bit more seriously in the storytelling, so we wouldn\u2019t do a LEGO side story. In the early development days, when we talked about The Real Ghostbusters, we talked about how Slimer was the character who became their sidekick. And we were like, \u201cIs that what we\u2019re doing? That extent of cartooning where you have Dart come back and become Dustin\u2019s little buddy?\u201d I think the audience would really dislike us for being too childish and disrespecting the IP that much.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think that goes into this conversation, where once you start breaking those rules that way, it really pulls you out, and the stakes are less real. In the finale, Nikki\u2019s fighting for her life. Those kids and the fact that they\u2019re holding on to the rope, every single one of them, and trying their best? They had no chance to stop that queen on their own, but it was the willpower of friendship. The reality of them trying everything, getting hit and coming back for more \u2014 that is what\u2019s real. So yes, it\u2019s animation, but the stakes are real for us when we\u2019re writing and boarding and animating. We absolutely take ourselves seriously as storytellers, and do our best to sell that kind of show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can fans expect around new characters and new locations for season two and beyond?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can imagine being a writer where you have to give arcs for every single character. But you have 22 to 23 minutes an episode, and you have to fulfill every single arc while telling the big episode story and fulfilling the entire season arc. You\u2019re trying to do all of that as fast as you can. It becomes so difficult to do that with so many characters. If Stranger Things were about Mike, El and Dustin, I\u2019d be like, \u201cWe can introduce as many characters as we want!\u201d But because the cast is already so big, it gets too difficult to keep introducing new ones.<\/p>\n

\n\tSomething we get resistance to is introducing more characters as opposed to reusing existing characters. [Audiences] wonder why we don\u2019t just use the characters we have. So with Nikki, it\u2019s just enough; and we\u2019ve introduced bully characters with Jeff and Charlie. You\u2019re going to probably see them come back since they\u2019ve been introduced now into this world. But we are going to go to new locations. For season two, we\u2019re going to discover a little bit more about the history of Hawkins and what that history means to these kids. There\u2019s a little bit more lore into the founding of Hawkins as a whole, and a lot of that has to do with how all the pieces come together with that last flower you see bloom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Broadway show, Stranger Things: The First Shadow<\/a>, ventures into historical territory. Should viewers anticipate any connections between it and your story?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Broadway show gets into its own territory. We stayed away from that. Anything past season two wasn\u2019t game for us because the kids wouldn\u2019t know any of that stuff. They\u2019re still discovering and learning. So we took what we knew from seasons one and two and built our own bridge. What I\u2019m hoping for is very much what happened with [Dave Filoni\u2019s Star Wars:] The Clone Wars. Right out the gate, everybody was like, \u201cThe Clone Wars?\u201d Then all of a sudden, people started watching it and were like, \u201cWait a second.\u201d They gave it a chance, and then got into the Star Wars of it all, understanding that these were their own unique adventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStranger Things: Tales From \u201985 cast: Luca Diaz as Mike, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Benjamin Plessala as Will, Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, and Elisha \u201cEJ\u201d Williams as Lucas.<\/p>\n

\n\tYour voice cast is different from the original live-action cast, with character additions voiced by Odessa A\u2019zion, Lou Diamond Phillips and Robert Englund. There are also original characters like Joyce Byers who don\u2019t appear. What was the decision-making around who would and wouldn\u2019t show up?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe truth of production is you\u2019re only given so many toys to play with, budget-wise. There are only so many assets built within the budget you have, so there\u2019s only so many characters you can build for a show within that. When it comes to CG animation, you\u2019re given a lot more freedom to play, but you also have to build every character. You have to design, model, texture, rig, light \u2014 everything for each character. That takes a lot of money and time. So when we do bring new characters, they have to be integral to the story, as opposed to just cameos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo going with a fresh cast was about budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBudget and then scheduling. Everybody\u2019s off doing other things, and for most, by the time they got to season five, the last thing they wanted to see was more Stranger Things. And it\u2019s not like we have these huge feature budgets to give them money to come back and do these roles. But [with the voice cast], we weren\u2019t going for exact matches. We were trying to get as close as we could. <\/p>\n

\n\tWe got really lucky with some of these kids, like Braxton [Quinney], who plays Dustin. When I heard him the first time, I was like, \u201cThat sounds like Dustin!\u201d Gaten [Matarazzo] wanted to come by the studio, so we gave him a full tour, and we played him this animatic with Braxton in it. He looked at us and goes, \u201cIs that me?\u201d We were like, \u201cNo, that\u2019s Braxton!\u201d It was so awesome to get that live reaction from him because that means we\u2019re doing something right. So we tried to get semi-close, but not one-to-one. That would have been, I think, nearly impossible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can\u2019t say, \u201cWe\u2019re searching for voice actors for an animated series for Stranger Things.\u201d We did an audition and people submitted. I am listening to hundreds of thousands of auditions to see who I can find. Also, these kids recorded this stuff like three and a half years ago. People have said, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t they just get the original actors because these kids look older now?\u201d Well, they\u2019ve gotten older in the last three years. When we initially cast them, they were still very young, and that\u2019s a huge part of it. That personality they bring, when they start owning the characters in such a different way \u2014 without losing the spirit of the original characters we\u2019ve grown up loving. They bring this pure energy and joy to reading these lines. These kids are embracing them in a way that I\u2019m not sure you would get in terms of excitement from the [live-action] actors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the ways you leave a unique mark on the Stranger Things universe is with the show\u2019s title theme. Can you talk about making that musical divergence?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe could have easily said, \u201cLet\u2019s do the main title from Stranger Things.\u201d But the Duffer brothers said, \u201cRobles, you have to make this your thing. It needs to become your own voice.\u201d So the pitch I gave the composers who tested for this \u2014 until Jason Nesbitt knocked it out of the park \u2014 is that I\u2019ve been a huge fan from day one of this series. As a fan, I don\u2019t want you to right out the gate give me something I\u2019m not familiar with. What we have to do is think of this like we\u2019re on a plane. On the tarmac, we\u2019re going to take off, and I want to hear Stranger Things because that\u2019s what I love, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m familiar with. But as that plane starts launching, I want you to start changing it into your voice, slowly, gradually.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow you\u2019re up in the air, and when you\u2019re in the air, that belongs to you. This is Tales From \u201985. Now I need it brought right back home, so when we land this plane, the last thing I hear is the thing I love, which is the Stranger Things theme song again. We bookend it, and you\u2019re going on that ride when you\u2019re listening to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have some great needle drops. Dare I say, a little better than the live-action? I don\u2019t want to call yours deep cuts because there\u2019s a lot of popular music in there. But there are some songs that if you know, you know. What song was your personal favorite, and what was most challenging to clear?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe personal one I wanted was The Cure, \u201cA Forest.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s episode two when Lucas and Max are getting the news from Dustin and they all have to rush to the fair, and Rosario is chasing Dustin in the forest. I\u2019ve been such a Cure and Robert Smith fan. My first concert at 15 was a Cure concert at the Rose Bowl. So it meant so muc to have the opportunity to put that needle drop in the right place. The lyrics are perfect for that scene. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe badass one that was a challenge was Black Sabbath\u2019s \u201cChildren of the Grave.\u201d<\/a> To get the rights to Black Sabbath was like half the budget. It\u2019s the Ozzy [Osbourne] of it all. I remember having a lot of back and forth \u2014 maybe we might have to get some alts or other ones, just in case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Allison Wood, who is our music supervisor, was a champion on that. I also want to give a lot of credit to my co-executive producer, Ian Graham, because he\u2019s the first one who dropped that one in there and said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to listen to how this sounds for this sequence\u201d with all of the zombie pumpkins. We were so excited when we heard that together. Then it was a matter of saying to Netflix, \u201cWe think it\u2019s gonna be difficult to get Black Sabbath, but listen and see what you think.\u201d And everybody fell in love. So it was up to Allison to really bring it home and make that happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStranger Things: Tales From \u201985<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tYou were able to debut in a theatrical setting<\/a>. What was that like?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe did a 12 o\u2019clock screening at Century City AMC with the cast and fans, and the chills I got! My dad took me to movies since I could remember. He worked two jobs, and his only day off was on Monday, so that was my day with my dad. Specifically, in the late \u201880s and \u201890s, he\u2019d take me to the AMC theater. So to have been a part of something that is now going to be in the theater was emotionally special for me. And being surrounded by fans. These experiences are so awesome because you\u2019re around people there because they\u2019re excited. Nobody showed up to judge. It\u2019s like going to a concert. You\u2019re all in. That energy was phenomenal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThen I bought tickets, with my wife and son, for the three o\u2019clock screening because I now wanted to be a fan. We got seats in the back row so I could feel the energy that way. Nobody was prompted to be at that screening. That was just fans showing up like anybody wanting to be there. So the fact that that theater got filled up \u2014 nobody got special-treatment tickets \u2014 and to see everybody\u2019s reaction and joy while wearing their own Stranger Things merch? It was a two-parter, so when the second main title came on, everybody cheered. I was gonna cry because that love and excitement is something you cannot pay people for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe anime industry has already embraced the TV-to-theatrical release pipeline. Streaming now has expanded TV budgets, while lengthening movie run times and shortening season orders, blurring some of the lines that separated the mediums. The Tales From \u201885 screening was not designed to generate revenue, but this is a moment where theaters are desperate for audiences and animated TV production is declining despite steady consumer interest<\/a>. What do you think Tales From \u201885\u2019s theatrical experience says about the potential of this moment?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tK-Pop Demon Hunters went on Netflix, people went nuts over it, and they said, \u201cLet\u2019s try it in the theater.<\/a>\u201d An explosion happened. Stranger Things season five was at the theaters<\/a>; it did its own thing. I think that\u2019s why I was so adamant in telling people they should go to the [Tales From \u201885] screening. It\u2019s bigger than just this show. This is among the first times an animated show was going to premiere in a theater, and the importance of that for the community is huge. If everybody goes to these things, then the next time we all might have opportunities to premiere in theaters. And not just animated shows, but anything that exists on TV. It can open doors in so many ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of the stuff that we\u2019re streaming isn\u2019t just basic television. It\u2019s theatrical. We made our finale feel like a theatrical experience with that creature trying to get through that gate and everybody fighting it \u2014 all the epicness that happens there. It wasn\u2019t your typical Saturday morning cartoon. We wanted you to feel that cinematic experience. <\/p>\n

\n\tWe will continue to do that in season two and beyond, if given the opportunity. I also think the maturity level of the audience can expect that. It\u2019s our responsibility to deliver that, and it\u2019s for the health of the industry. Like 80 percent of the animation industry right now is hurting. So many of my friends \u2014 I can only give so many jobs to people out there \u2014 are out of work. This community needs a lot of love and support. So the importance of what just happened was huge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tStranger Things: Tales From \u201885 is now streaming season one on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix has renewed the Duffer Brothers\u2019 animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales From \u201885 for a second season.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3621,93,61,60,1868,59511,105015,92865,282],"class_list":["post-423057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-animation","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-netflix","tag-stranger-things","tag-stranger-things-tales-from-85","tag-the-duffer-brothers","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}