''What Spielberg did in the 80s'': When the Duffer brothers revealed their inspiration behind Netflix's Stranger Things

After months of anticipation, Netflix finally revealed that Stranger Things Season 5 will be released in three volumes, with the series finale debuting on December 31, 2025.

The science fiction horror series debuted back in 2016 and took the world by storm. The Duffer Brothers not only created a show, but they invoked nostalgia and paid homage to 80s pop culture, bringing back board games like Dungeons & Dragons, rock music and horror-slasher films.

While Stranger Things borrows a lot from 80s horror films, the brothers were especially inspired by Steven Spielberg's works, as they revealed in an interview with The Guardian:

“So the idea was, could we take - what Spielberg did in the 80s was he took these kind of B-movie ideas, like flying saucers or killer sharks, and he elevated it.''

More on this in our story.

How did the Duffer Brothers transform their love for horror movies into Stranger Things?

Nobody expected Stranger Things to become such a global phenomenon, and neither Netflix nor the Duffer Brothers saw it coming. But when it did, it broke all records and Eleven and her gang became a staple Halloween costume for people.

While the show became one of the biggest titles, its beginnings are equally humbling and inspiring. In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, the Duffer Brothers discussed how their interest in horror movies motivated them to write and create their own stuff.

Early on, they were influenced by the works of famous directors like Tim Burton, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, which inspired them to enroll in a film school in California.

After they graduated, they took writing gigs and even made some lesser-known movies, until the idea of Stranger Things struck them, as Ross Duffer discussed with The Guardian:

“We were seeing TV becoming increasingly cinematic, with stuff like True Detective. And Game of Thrones opened up ‘genre TV’ and showed it doesn’t have to be cheesy.”

While they initially conceived the idea as a movie, they were inspired by Spielberg's works and later decided to expand on it, as Ross Duffer added:

''In this new medium, can we go back and try and do a little of what he [Spielberg] did, take something that’s been relegated to being cheesy, and can you do an elevated version of that?”

Stranger Things borrows heavily from this Steven Spielberg movie

While allusions to Spielberg's more celebrated works, such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Indiana Jones trilogy, are apparent in Stranger Things, there is another work that heavily inspired this global phenomenon.

That is J.J. Abrams' 2011 science fiction thriller movie Super 8, which was produced by Spielberg. Set in 1979 Ohio, the movie follows a bunch of kids trying to make a Super 8 film, when a train crash leads to extraterrestrial events and they get embroiled in a spooky adventure.

Just like Stranger Things, where the group bands together to save Will from the Upside Down, the group bands together in Super 8 to free one of their friend from an alien.

Talking about the influence of Super 8 on their work, the Duffer brothers discussed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast:

"We wanted to bring back that more not ironic, sincere, adventure, family storytelling that just seemed to have gone [away] – with the exception of 'Super 8', nobody was doing [it]. And ‘Super 8’ was kind of a one-off. I loved ‘Super 8’ but then it was just gone. No one else did it. And I do think there was an appetite – or that’s what I hoped – for this type of storytelling, so that really more than anything is what it is, is trying to stay in that zone."

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 will premiere on Netflix on November 26, 2025.

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Also Read: Stranger Things almost had a different title

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