A few months back, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that not only did they know how their hit ’80s paranormal sci-fi show was going to end, but they already had plans for a spinoff. These plans were so secret that not even the top brass at Netflix knew what they were, though the Duffer brothers promised that it would be “1,000% different” from the mothership show.
But there is one person who knows what the spinoff is about: Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler. The Duffers didn’t tell him; he just guessed correctly. “He wasn’t spitballing, he just went, ‘I think this would be a cool spin-off. And we were like, ‘How in the world…’” Ross Duffer previously recalled.
The Duffers attributed this to Wolfhard’s own aptitude for filmmaking. (The 20-year old co-wrote and directed a horror-comedy film called Hell of a Summer.) The other day, Wolfhard himself shared his side of the story during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon:
Finn Wolfhard ordered “not to tell anyone” about the Stranger Things spinoff
Wolfhard was talking up his new movie When You Finish Saving the World, which comes out in a couple of weeks. Of course, Fallon had to ask a couple questions about Stranger Things. “It’s gonna be crazy once it’s all done,” Wolfhard said about the show’s forthcoming fifth and final season. “I’m just excited to go back…and actually finish it.”
As for Wolfhard accurately guessing the premise of the Stranger Things spinoff, here’s how he put it: “So, we were on set filming Stranger Things 4, and we were all talking about if there’s going to be ,” Wolfhard recalled. “Like joking, ‘Oh, they’re all going to have us back in 20 years. We’re all going to be fat and old and being like, ‘Eleven, where are you?’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, but, if you guys are actually going to do a spinoff, it should be this.'”
Wolfhard remembers how the Duffers looked at each other when he pitched his idea, before pulling him off to the side to have a private word. “They were like ‘That is the idea. Who told you?’ I was like, ‘No one.’ They were like, ‘What do you mean? You just, like, came up with it?’ And I was like, ‘Well, no, I just thought that that would be a cool way to kind of expand…'”
The conversation ended with the Duffers saying, “Okay well…don’t tell anyone.” And he mostly hasn’t.
There’s still no word on what the Stranger Things spinoff will be about. As for Stranger Things season 5, it’s reportedly set to begin production this May, and is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2024.
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