Picture Credit: Netflix
Paramount, under new ownership, has made some big swings out of the gate, and undoubtedly, their two biggest moves thus far have been picking up UFC rights and poaching away The Duffer Brothers and their company Upside Down Pictures away from Netflix. Although the duo will be moving their overall deal to Paramount in 2026, that doesn’t mean all their existing projects at Netflix are being canceled.
To recap, Netflix struck an overall deal with Upside Down Pictures (previously Monkey Massacre Productions) in September 2019, which runs through to April 2026. That deal was for all film and TV projects, but the pair have been snapped up for a deal with Paramount, reuniting them with Cindy Holland, who first worked with them at Netflix on Stranger Things. Their new deal runs through 2030 and is expected to cover theatrical films, something they were not permitted or didn’t do at Netflix.
Stranger Things Season 5
Status: Post-Production
STRANGER THINGS. (L to R) David Harbour as Jim Hopper and Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in STRANGER THINGS. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Stranger Things, as a show, is one of the rare unlucky shows that managed to bear the brunt of two major disruptions in Hollywood. Season 4 was severely delayed and impacted by the pandemic of 2020-21, while season 5 was largely affected by two major strikes in 2023, which prevented filming.
Filming did get underway, and the series, which is undoubtedly one of Netflix’s biggest in its entire library with only Squid Game and Wednesday ahead of it, returns in three parts, which will conclude the story that first hit Netflix back in 2016. To date, Stranger Things is the only delivered project that hit our screens and that won’t be changing until 2026. It’s also the project that the Duffers themselves are most involved with, serving as writers and directors, roles they’re not necessarily in for Netflix’s other output.
We’ve got more on Stranger Things in our full preview, and we won’t rehash all the season 5 details here, but it’s safe to say that the show intends to do anything but go out with a whimper.
Part 1, consisting of 4 episodes, is set to premiere on November 26, 2025. Part 2, consisting of the next 3 episodes, will premiere December 25, 2025, while Part 3, the finale episode, will premiere December 31, 2025.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 & Other Stranger Things Projects
Picture: Meybis Ruiz Cruz / Instagram
Stranger Things is set to expand beyond the main series. There’s been a live-action series confirmed to be in the works with the Duffers set to executive produce at the very least, but beyond that, details are slim to none…
The one project we know is coming up in 2026 is Stranger Things: Tales from ’85. Set in the winter of 1985, between seasons 2 and 3 of the mothership series, Eric Robles, who worked on Glitch Techs streaming in full on Netflix right now, is showrunning with the Duffers EP’ing. The animated series, which has already been renewed for season 2, sees the original characters, plus the new addition Nikki, fighting new and familiar monsters and unraveling a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.
To date, we still don’t have first looks at the new series, with the closest being reference art by Instagram user Meybis Ruiz Cruz. We got that intel (and a bunch more about the show) during the Annecy Film Festival Netflix showcase. You can find all the details about that new series here, but if you look at some of the works from Flying Bark, the animation studio headquartered in Australia, you’ll get some idea of what to expect.
While on the subject of Stranger Things animation, there’s still a lingering question about whether this is the sole animated project in the works. As you may recall, in December 2022, we got intel that Netflix was developing an anime-style series called Stranger Things: Tokyo. Based on concept art showcased at Annecy Film Festival, it may be the case that the project was redeveloped into Tales from 85 or perhaps this is still ongoing elsewhere… The projects are completely different in scope and story, so fingers crossed we will one day find out the answer.
Beyond these, The First Shadow stage play is now playing on Broadway in New York and in the West End of London for the foreseeable future. We’re told there are no current plans to bring a recorded copy of that to Netflix, although it’s been suggested to us that this could change if/when the stage shows eventually come to an end.
Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen
Status: Confirmed for 2026 Release / Post-Production
Picture: Instagram / Upside Down Pictures
Although at one point scheduled for release in 2025, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen will now premiere in 2026, having been filmed in the first half of 2025 in Mississauga, Canada. The Duffers are EP’ing this particular project with Haley Boston firmly behind the steering wheel as creator, showrunner, and writer.
Dubbed as an atmospheric horror, the series is initially set at a wedding, following the bride and groom in the week leading up to their ill-fated nuptials. Series regulars include Gus Birney, Zlatko Burić, Karla Crome, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ted Levine, Jeff Wilbusch, Adam DiMarco as the Groom, and Camila Morrone as the Bride.
We’ve got more on Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen in our full preview.
The Boroughs
Status: Confirmed for 2026 Release / Post-Production
Picture: Upside Down Pictures / Instagram
The other of two confirmed series projects with The Duffers serving solely as executive producers is The Boroughs, with Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews helming the project. Filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between September 2024 and early 2025, the series is set in a picturesque retirement community in the New Mexico desert, where a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have… time.
Some early footage and stills for this particular show were shown off at Next on Netflix in early 2025, and it certainly has a distinct aesthetic that would be tied to Stranger Things’ DNA.
The Savage, Noble Death Of Babs Dionne
Status: Active Development
The most recently announced project to be in the works was announced in the Summer of 2025. Set to be a series, adapted from a novel by Ron Currie, who also serves as a writer on the series alongside partner Joshua Mohr, it is set in the small town of Waterville, Maine.
The story follows Babs Dionne, a proud Franco-American woman who is a doting grandmother and the formidable crime matriarch of the town. She controls the drug trade in the area, assisted by her loyal teenage girlfriends and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine veteran battling addiction. The plot thickens when a drug kingpin, noticing a decline in his numbers in the upper northeast, dispatches a mysterious and malevolent figure known as “The Man” to investigate, all while Babs’s youngest sister has gone missing.
Death Note
Status: Unknown
Netflix officially announced in July 2022 that Matt and Ross Duffer will executive produce a new live-action Death Note series, a complete reboot unconnected to Netflix’s 2017 Death Note film, which at one stage was due to get a sequel that has been long since canceled.
Based on the Japanese manga and anime of the same name, the series would follow a bright teenager who discovers a mysterious black notebook that gives him supernatural power over life and death.
Following that initial announcement, it was announced in late 2022 that Halia Abdel-Meguid would be writing and executive producing on the project. On Abdel-Meguid’s website, it still lists the series in the present tense. Another good sign is that Dan Lin, who now serves as Netflix’s head of film and previously worked at Rideback, was attached as a producer long before his big jump up to Netflix.
The Talisman
Status: Unknown
First announced for Netflix back in March 2021, development is still ongoing for Netflix’s series adaptation of The Talisman, a book by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Steven Spielberg, through Amblin Television, was announced to be producing the series, although there has been no significant development since that initial announcement. The only connection to the recent jump to Paramount is that in initial press releases to the series, Paramount Television was cited as being one of the production partners.
On the website for Halia Abdel-Meguid, it mentions how she previously (note in past tense) worked on staffing gigs for Netflix’s The Talisman.
The series would be a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. Here’s a rundown of the series story: “To save his mother from certain death, young Jack Sawyer enters a parallel world known as the Territories in search of a powerful talisman.”
Per SlashFilm, Amblin has had the permanent rights to the book since 1982, although an adaptation has never come to fruition for one reason or another. That was confirmed by the Duffers in an interview with Deadline in mid-2022, saying, “It may be the last great ’80s Stephen King book that has not been previously adapted, and that’s only because Amblin and Spielberg have held onto it for as long as they have. They own the rights, and they haven’t allowed any version to get made up to hopefully now.”
The continued, “It’s a huge book, it’s really long, and I don’t think it would ever have really worked effectively as a movie. Until recently, I don’t think it would have worked as television. It’s like we’re in this new era now where there’s a kind of merging of television shows that feel and look like movies because they’re getting these pretty big budgets behind them. So, something like Talisman that even five years ago was not doable, is very doable now.”
Beyond an Easter Egg in Stranger Things season 4, where Lucas read The Talisman novel on screen, the wait for The Talisman continues…
A previous version of this article from 2023 can be found here.
What are you looking forward to seeing The Duffer Brothers bring to Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
Rating: TV-14
