Talk:Stranger Things

Wiki Education assignment: Research Process and Methodology - RPM SP 2022 - MASY1-GC 1260 200 Thu

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 February 2022 and 5 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Tianhao Ning (article contribs).

Splitting proposal

I propose that the section about other media be split into a separate page called Stranger Things (franchise). The content of the section is only marginally related to the main article, and this section is large and well-sourced enough to make its own page. There is already a draft article in progress available at Draft: Stranger Things (franchise). Abdullateefsherani (talk) 03:12, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

• Support The article as it is now is already quite massive.★Trekker (talk) 16:03, 17 September 2025 (UTC)
• Support per nom, especially with the recent first look at Tales From '85. KnowledgeIsPower9281 (talk) 00:31, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Comment: The move has been done. See Stranger Things (franchise). KnowledgeIsPower9281 (talk) 17:25, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

games books and spin-offs could be split off ~2026-63853-0 (talk) 17:51, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

section in the controversies section about will coming out...? and that whole episode in general

a lot of backlash happened against ep 7 apparently, and there are probably enough articles to add it -- should we add it here, or to will byers, or...? ~2025-43459-44 (talk) 09:11, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

It would make sense to add that part to the Will Byers section, buuuut might i suggest adding queerbaiting to the controversies section? I know there's a lot of argument over whether or not it actually counts as queerbait, but it is a huge controversy about the show. CharlieLovecats (talk) 15:55, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

I would also say add it to the Will Byers page.

As for if it's queerbaiting, i,m not sure whether or not it counts. Circe loves pigs (talk) 02:34, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

It's already at Stranger Things season 5#Reception. -- Alex _talk 03:04, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Release - time zone

From where I am, in Brazil, there is a date on Netflix saying that it will be released here on December 31, 2025, at 10 pm. As the series is from the United States, the ideal would be to use the Washington time zone, right? Since the "already released" date depends on each region. Theys York (talk) 02:30, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Is this not what this article is already doing? All dates here are listed per their American timezone. -- Alex_21 _TALK 03:05, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

A user had added that the last episode had already been released, and mentioned the time zone, but did not say which country he was based in to make this edition. But the edit was undone.Theys York (talk) 06:15, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

"many publications consider it among the greatest television shows ever made"

"Many consider it" is weasel wording I can't find any evidence of this in the article. Closest I found was "In 2021, BBC Culture polled 206 "critics, journalists, academics and industry figures" from around the world to compile the 100 greatest television series of the 21st century; Stranger Things came in at number 68." But that's only 1 publication and for only this young century not all time. If we can't credibly source this it should be removed. ~2025-33274-55 (talk) 03:41, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Eight sources found at the article linked by "the greatest television shows ever made". -- Alex_21 _TALK 03:49, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

Science fiction, and not horror?

I'm going to edit this introduction to say that this is a horror genre show. I only do this because there are many scary monsters, it makes multiple references to horror films, and reliable sources indicate it is a horror show and not sci-fi. FPTI (talk) 09:52, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

There was a long discussion in Weapons. It was noted that the definition of the title's genre varies based on what each source says. It's subjective based on what each critic says. Finally, what the distributor said, Warner, was in the article, which is in the film's trailer.

As for Die My Love, there is also no consensus among sources indicating the film's genre. I already started the discussion by stating that only the genres informed by the film's distributor should be cited, in the case of Die My Love, Mubi. Another editor researched what was said in +or- about 30 sources on Google and it was decided in the discussion which genre appears most in the sources to leave in the article.

So, in the case of Stranger Things, what to do? 1. Leave the genres Netflix says? 2. Does anyone search what all the sources say on Google and select the most cited ones to leave in the article? I choose 1.Theys York (talk) 18:05, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

@FPTI I would at least add that it's sci-fi horror. I understand that there is a lot of references to horror movie. But there's as much references to adventure movies and sci-fi fiction. ~2026-40480 (talk) 00:16, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

I apologize. I thought it was extremely obvious that it was horror, but I asked my colleague at work who knows the show what genre he would call it, and he didn't immediately answer "horror", and said it "touches on many genres." While I still think it's horror, clearly it's not as obvious as I thought. Again, my apologies.

Encyclopedia Britannica calls it "Science fiction horror." FPTI (talk) 01:57, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Let us remove the genre from the starting sentence, since the last sentence of the para discusses the various genres. Kailash29792 (talk) 03:02, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

The sentence that it combines elements of horror and sci-fi is adequate. There are sources that note its sci-fi elements. There's a recent NPR article about its use of wormholes in the story. Sci-fi is a significant aspect of the story as depicted by the final season.

The coming-of-age genre needs verifiability. A series taking nearly a decade to finish does not itself make a coming-of-age story because the young protagonists got older. Lapadite (talk) 07:52, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

I wouldn't really say it's just a horror show, because Stranger Things does indeed fall into the categories of sci-fi. It contributes to Sci-Fi because of it's blending 1980s nostalgia with modern, accessible scientific concepts: parallel universe (the Upside Down), inter-dimensional travel, psychic abilities. It grounds its supernatural horror in Cold War-era government conspiracy, making "nerdy" curiosity cool and bridging character driven drama eith theoretical physics.

sorry also little nerdy about stranger things. Dedeosamazinhaa (talk) 03:53, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

What's with the notes section?

Neither of the two entries is a useful note, but the first one is someone's poorly written essay of personal categorization of the show, with nothing substantiated or factual. ~2026-40611 (talk) 18:46, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Yes, I agree. And it reads like it was written by an AI model. Urgull 4 c (talk) 19:24, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Deleted. Whoever wrote that did WP:SYNTH, and did not cite sources. Theys York (talk) 20:02, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 January 2026

Change the Rotten Tomatoes score for Season 5 from "85% (141 reviews)" to "83% (161 reviews)."

Pinkdrip (talk) 07:18, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

 Done jolielover♥talk 14:35, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

References

This page has misinformation.

Stranger Things is not any form of fiction. It is not science fiction. It is real. (I am not checking back here.) ~2026-14946-4 (talk) 05:04, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

It's of genre fiction.... Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 05:06, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Undo/cite/fix/whatever addition of FromSoftware to influences sentence

The third paragraph of the lede has, for many years, had a sentence saying:

Several thematic and directorial elements were inspired by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Stephen King, Wes Craven and H. P. Lovecraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stranger_Things&diff=next&oldid=1324231121 added "and FromSoftware" to the end of this list. There's no citation to the addition, and also no edit summary or talk page message.

It's certainly very plausible that this is both true and citable. For example, IIRC, the Duffer Brothers have admitted to borrowing sound cues from the first Dark Souls game as deeply hidden easter eggs in season 1, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they've also talked about taking "thematic and directorial elements" from the Dark Souls series, or from FromSoftware games more generally. But it's not cited at all.

Also, it's an addition to the end of a long-standing sentence--which, unfortunately, was also never cited. So it's also very plausible that Spielberg, Carpenter, Lunch, King, Craven, Lovecraft form a specific list that they specifically talked about multiple times, and that, even if they did talk about Dark Souls other times, they never included it in this list. In which case this sentence needs to be rewritten into a citable synthesis, or into separately cited claims, or something like that, not just edited from a close paraphrase into original research that sounds like a paraphrase but isn't.

PS, Apologies for copying and pasting the full URL for the edit like this; it looks wrong, but I don't know how to do it right.

PPS, The last time I tried to bring up a similar change on a Wikipedia page, multiple people responded that I should just create an edit request using the template. But the Wikipedia:Edit requests page (I hope I linked that right) explicitly says not to do that until after gaining consensus, except for uncontroversial things like typos. --~2025-43999-99 (talk) 19:14, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Please consider putting the link to wormhole in the first paragraph, where it first occurs.

Instead of the second occurrence.

Thanks. ~2025-36483-04 (talk) 04:51, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 January 2026

add Eduardo Franco to the role list as he was a main character in season 4 ~2026-63853-0 (talk) 17:45, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want made. Day Creature (talk) 17:50, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

Is Eduardo Franco a valid main actor

Eduardo Franco plays argyle in season 4, argyle plays a substantial role in saving the main cast and is important to the California half of the plot ~2026-63853-0 (talk) 17:49, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

He was not credited in the episodes as part of the main cast. Even if he was an important character, cast status is determined by the producers, not by screentime. -- Alex_21 _TALK 20:22, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 February 2026

From the season 5 portion of the overview section:

"To prevent the military from creating new psychic test subjects with her blood, Eleven stays behind in the collapsing Upside Down. 18 months later, in May 1989, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max graduate from high school, and Hopper proposes to Joyce. Mike theorizes about how Eleven could have potentially faked her death."

- Change "Eleven stays behind in the collapsing Upside Down" to "Eleven seemingly stays behind in the collapsing Upside Down." Mike later presents compelling evidence of her having faked her death. The creators of the show left her fate ambiguous intentionally.

- Change "Mike theorizes about how Eleven could have potentially faked her death" to "Mike reveals to the group his theory and belief that Eleven faked her death in the Upside Down, and the rest of the group resolves to believe along with him." Mike isn't just spit-balling about a potential event. He reasons, with evidence, that she is alive. Furthermore, Max, Will, Dustin, and Lucas all state that they believe Eleven escaped and agree with Mike's theory. They all choose to believe it is true. ~2026-73226-0 (talk) 22:46, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

 Done -- Alex_21 _TALK 23:21, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

answer= — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dedeosamazinhaa (talk • contribs) 04:00, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 March 2026

Add Category:GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series. ~2026-14641-66 (talk) 22:42, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

 Done {{GearsDatapack|talk|contribs}} 10:48, 8 March 2026 (UTC)