“Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer are headed to Paramount.
The duo, who created “Stranger Things” and have overseen related material from the streamer’s flagship series (including several spinoffs and a hit Broadway show), will be joining Paramount in an exclusive deal to create new series and features, according to media reports.
Cindy Holland, who greenlit “Stranger Things” when she was at Netflix, is now Paramount’s head of streaming. The brothers would work with Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, who are vice chair of platforms and chair of Paramount Television, respectively, as well as co-chairs of Paramount Pictures. Representatives for Paramount, Netflix and the Duffer Brothers did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Duffer Brothers still have plenty of work to do with Netflix. The fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” is set to air across the holidays this year, starting at Thanksgiving and continuing through Christmas and New Year’s. Next year an animated series, “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85,” is set to premiere. And they are in development on several “Stranger Things” projects, via their Upside Down Pictures, including a live-action spinoff and an anime series. Currently, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is playing on Broadway after a successful run in London.
Upside Down Pictures is run by their producing partner Hilary Leavitt. There are a pair of non-“Stranger Things”-related Upside Down Pictures set at Netflix for 2026 – “The Boroughs,” which has been described as “Stranger Things” but set in a New Mexico retirement community, starring Bill Pullman, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard and Alfred Molina; and “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen,” a horror series with Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco.
The Brothers haven’t made a movie since 2015’s post-apocalyptic “Hidden,” which was made for Warner Bros. but sat on the shelf for years before it quietly being released direct-to-video. They worked on the M. Night Shyamalan series “Wayward Pines,” where they wrote four episodes before creating “Stranger Things,” originally called “Montauk.”
Even if they finalize the deal for Paramount, there will still be plenty of “Stranger Things” content on Netflix. You’re not out of the Upside Down just yet.
