‘Stranger Things' creators tease new supernatural show set in a retirement community: ‘They ride golf carts, not bikes'
CNN —
While everyone is hanging at the edge of their seats for more info on the fifth and final season of ' Stranger Things,' the brothers behind the hit show are already cooking up their next projects.
At a Netflix presentation of the streaming giant's 2025 slate for press on Wednesday, 'Stranger Things' creators Ross and Matt Duffer revealed that in 2026 they will be executive producing two new shows, titled 'The Boroughs' and 'Something Very Bad is Going to Happen,' both of which 'encompass what we feel is at the core of 'Stranger Things,'' according to Ross Duffer – 'they're stories about ordinary people who encounter the extraordinary.'
Matt Duffer added that 'The Boroughs' 'probably shares the most DNA with 'Stranger Things' because it's about a group of misfits who fight an otherworldly evil.'
'Only unlike 'Stranger Things,' it's set in a retirement community, so that's something different,' he quipped. 'This time our misfits are a little on the older side. They ride golf carts, not bikes,' he said, in reference to the young characters in 'Stranger Things' who ride their bicycles around Hawkins, Indiana.
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in Season 4 of "Stranger Things."
Aside from the brief description, the pair were able to share some key cast members for 'The Boroughs,' including Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard and Bill Pullman.
As for 'Stranger Things,' the Duffers shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the concluding season and revealed that they'd spent an entire year filming it, capturing over 650 hours of footage.
'It's like eight blockbuster movies. It's pretty insane,' Ross Duffer said, while his brother highlighted that it 'was super intense and emotional to film – for us and for our actors. We've been making this show together for almost ten years. There was a lot of crying. There was SO much crying.'
For context, 'Stranger Things' first premiered on Netflix back in 2016, when star Millie Bobbie Brown was 11 (and coincidentally began playing a character named Eleven). Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria pointed this out at the presentation, going on to say that she was recently in attendance at Brown's wedding.
If that weren't enough, the Duffers also promised that Season 5 of 'Stranger Things' wouldn't mark the end of the story of the Upside Down.
'There are more 'Stranger Things' stories to tell and in the works. It's a bit early at this point to talk about them, but we're deeply involved in every one,' Matt Duffer teased.
Also in the mix at the Netflix presentation was more information on another sinister and escapist hit show – namely 'Squid Game,' which debuted its second season last month.
Bajaria unveiled the news that the third and final season of the South Korean thriller series will hit the streamer on June 27.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Netflix has removed the most brutal film of the last 10 years
Every month, Netflix removes a large selection of movies and TV shows from its library. These titles often feel as if they're taken down without warning; the service only informs you when you scroll through its library and select something that happens to be leaving in the next 30 days. In recent years, Netflix Originals have also found themselves on the departure list – something that has led to plenty of consternation among users who believed these titles would remain on the service for good. Among the films leaving this service this month are the Final Destination and Hunger Games films as well as 2018 film The Nightingale. The psychological thriller, from The Babadook director Jennifer Kent, is a tough watch that isn't for the faint hearted. Set in 1825, The Nightingale follows a young Irish convict (Aisling Franciosi) who seeks vengeance against members of the Colonial forces of Tasmania after unspeakable acts are committed against her. It could very well be the most brutal film of the last 10 years – and led to cinema walkouts due to its graphic portrayal of rape and murder. Kent defended her film after reports of complaints, saying she doesn't believe the violence to be 'gratuitous or exploitative'. Meanwhile, the TV show that will leave the biggest absence after its Netflix departure is US drama Lost. Beginning in 2004, Lost – which followed survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 – became the biggest cult show on the planet, generating intense fan discussion and theories on the internet throughout its six seasons on air. The show is regularly listed on polls ranking the best TV shows of all time, with Empire. EW, Time and Variety all opting to include Lost. Lost celebrated its 20th anniversary in September 2024 and has recently had a resurgence thanks to its arrival on Netflix. Find a full list of every movie and TV series leaving Netflix in July 2025 below - and a list of everything being added here. NB: We put this list together with assistance from What's on Netflix. Movies 1 August Are We Done Yet? – US The Best Man Holiday – US The Birds – US Bobby Z – US Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – UK Conan the Destroyer – US Dawn of the Dead (2004) – US Drinking Buddies – UK Dunkirk – US Everest – US Fallen (2016) – US Family Plot – US Fifty Shades Darker – UK Fifty Shades Freed – UK Fifty Shades of Grey – UK Field of Dreams – US The Five-Year Engagement – US For the Love of the Game – US Frenzy – US The Furnace – US Georgia Rule – UK The Ghost and the Tout – UK/US Happy Gilmore – US Hitchcock – US The Infiltrator – US Jack the Giant Slayer – US K-9 – US The Lego Movie – US Little Man – UK Lucy – US The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) – US Matilda (1996) – US Mid90s – US My Perfect Landing – US The Nightingale – UK The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature – UK The Place Beyond the Pines – US Psycho (1960) – US Rear Window – US Return to the Blue Lagoon – US Rooster Cogburn – US Senna – UK/US The Shack – US Shortcomings – US Shrek – UK Shrek 2 – UK Shrek the Third – UK Smokey and the Bandit – US Smokey and the Bandit II – US Sniper – US Sniper: Ghost Shooter – US Spanglish – US The Sugarland Express – US Think Like a Man – UK Tiger 24 – US The Town – US Trolls – US Uncle Buck – US Vertigo – US Warcraft – UK The Water Horse – UK The Wedding Planner – US White House Down – UK 2 August The Intern – UK 3 August Aloe Vera – UK Elevator Baby – UK/US Final Destination – UK Final Destination 2 – UK Final Destination 3 – UK Final Destination 5 – UK Shaka Inkosi YamaKhosi – UK/US 4 August The Set Up – UK/US 5 August Down Low – US Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story – US Lockdown – UK/US Love Is War – UK/US Nairobby – UK '71 – UK 6 August DC League of Super-Pets – UK A Man Apart – UK Norbit – UK Sugar Rush – UK 7 August Demolition Man – UK Gods of Egypt – UK High-Rise – US A History of Violence – UK Man on Wire – US Up North – UK/US 8 August Filip – UK Journey to Bethlehem – US Nimbe – UK/US 9 August Deep Blue Sea – UK Get Hard – US Love in Taipei – US Merry Men 2: Another Mission – UK/US Peter Rabbit –UK 10 August American Psycho – UK Chef – UK Coming from Insanity –UK/US Conan the Barbarian – UK How to Be a Latin Lover – UK The Hunger Games – UK The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – UK The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – UK The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – UK Love Again – UK What to Expect When You're Expecting – UK Uncle Drew – US 11 August Horizon Line – UK The Vendor – UK/US 12 August Black Mass – US Blueback – US The Mule – UK The Razz Guy – UK/US The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai – UK/US 13 August A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella – US Chinese Odyssey (Part I) – US Lara and the Beat – UK 14 August Early Man – UK Jared Freid: 37 & Single (Netflix Original) – UK/US Living in Bondage: Breaking Free – UK Out of Thin Air – UK Summer Playlist (Netflix Original) – UK/US 15 August The Bank Job – UK The Choice – UK 4th Republic – UK/US From Prada to Nada – UK The Great Debaters – UK John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – UK Learn to Swim – UK/US Long Shot – UK Slender Man – UK The Stepfather (2009) – UK 30 Minutes or Less – UK US Marshals – UK Where Hope Grows – US 16 August Endless Love – US Gladiator – UK Lagos Real Fake Life – UK/US Model – US Mother Goose Club – US Ouija: Origin of Evil – US The Secret Garden – UK The Theory of Everything – UK White Boy – UK 17 August Anchor Baby – UK/US Bad Day for the Cut – UK Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – US Renfield – UK Thanksgiving – US The Whole Truth – UK 18 August Light in the Dark – UK/US 19 August Beetlejuice – UK Dwindle – UK Grease – UK It's Her Day – UK You Can Do It, Dear! – UK 20 August Hire a Woman – UK 21 August Alakada Reloaded – UK/US The Ice Cream Wars – UK Kung Fu Panda 4 – US Logan Lucky – US Polly Pocket Sparkle Cove Adventure – UK Something in the Water – UK To Leslie – UK Trust Me – UK 22 August The Boss Baby – US Nigerian Prince – UK 24 August Beau Is Afraid – UK The Machine – UK Moms at War – UK Space Jam – UK The Super Mario Bros Movie – UK Pope Francis: A Man of His Word – US 25 August Dinosaur Train – UK Jack Frost – UK Melancholia – US 26 August Anna – UK Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – US 29 August Kardec (Netflix Original) – US 31 August The Hitman's Bodyguard – US The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard – US TV 1 August Close Your Eyes Before It's Dark – UK/US Have You Ever Fallen in Love, Miss Jiang? – UK/US Holey Moley – US Life Plan A and B – UK/US Love Storm – UK/US Masha and the Bear: Nursery Rhymes – UK/US My Perfect Landing – US Om Nom Stories – UK/US Rich Holiday Poor Holiday – UK Suspect – UK 2 August Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons – UK/US 3 August Never Give Up – UK 5 August My Wife and Kids season one to five – US 6 August Ever After High (Netflix Original) – UK/US 13 August Greenleaf (Netflix Original) – UK 15 August Ballers – US Happy! (Netflix Original) – UK Lost – UK Million Yen Women (Netflix Original) – UK/US Model – UK Mother Goose Club – UK 16 August Victim Number 8 (Netflix Original) – UK/US 18 August Babylon series one – UK 19 August Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches – US Dark Winds – US A Discovery of Witches – US Fear the Walking Dead – US Gangs of London – US Interview with the Vampire – US Into the Badlands – US Kevin Can F**k Himself – US Monsieur Spade – US Preacher – US That Dirty Black Bag – US The Terror – US UnReal – US The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – US The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – US 24 August The Devil Judge – UK 26 August The Mist (Netflix Original) – UK
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Hollywood will never stop remaking, rebooting and recycling the old same stories
The Naked Gun. 28 Days Later. I Know What You Did Last Summer. Jurassic Park. Thought these are all titles from 2025, you could be forgiven for thinking they came from Moviefone. This year's summer blockbuster season has been dominated by nostalgic fare: reboots, remakes and sequels. And while the retold story has been an element of the movie business going back to its earliest days, studios seem to be cashing in more than ever before — and audiences are buying in. From Lilo & Stitch becoming the year's first billion-dollar box office earner, to Happy Gilmore smashing Netflix audience records (47 million watched it on the streaming service in the first three days it was available), to King of the Hill clocking in as Disney's biggest adult animated premiere in five years, the desire for old stories made new seems to have never been higher. "We all look back with, you know, rose-coloured glasses on the times we grew up in as better," Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra explained to CBC News in a recent interview. "Right now especially, the world is a little bit of an unsure place. And I think that the comfort of these movies and that collective feeling of togetherness we got when we watch these movies … it's why people are going back to theatres."A return to the well Hollywood's affection for recycled and rehashed stories started right alongside Hollywood itself: going as far back as Georges Méliès' L'Arroseur from 1896, a remake of the previous year's L'Arroseur arrosé. And 1903's The Great Train Robbery was infamously recreated in an essentially a shot-for-shot remake the year after, then numerous times after that. And the trend of journalists pointing out remakes is nearly as old as the remakes themselves. "Remaking old films is really old hat for the cinema people," read a 1937 article from the New York Times. "Although the screen has only recently emerged from its swaddling clothes and managed to crawl just about halfway into its metaphorical knee-pants, it already belies its years and even casts fond, reminiscent glances backward." "More often than not these yearnings for the past have been prompted by pecuniary rather than esthetic motives. Depending upon one's point of view, the studios may be regarded either as taking critical stock of themselves or as cashing in on their old preferred. The latter view seems more consistent with the facts." Other than the flowery language, the complaint that a given year was overloaded with remakes sounds like it could have come from today.'They often miss the soul' "I am not a fan. I continue to not be a fan of live-action remakes because they often miss the soul," explained director Dean DeBlois, despite releasing a live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon earlier this year. "Too often they feel like they are lesser versions of the animated movie to me." So why have remakes and reboots become the dominant fare of 2025's movie slate? According to ComScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it comes down to dollars and cents. The summer blockbuster has been a tentpole for Hollywood going back decades; Dergarabedian notes that it generates roughly forty per cent of North America's total box office. So success often depends on studios launching their surest bets during this "play it safe" period where they have the best chance of satisfying the widest-possible audience. That, Dergarabedian says, is not a recipe for originality."As much as so many people decry the lack of originality in movies, when you look at the top 10 movies of the year, generally speaking, there might be one or two out of the top ten that are true original films," he said. "That right there tells you why studios, marketers, PR folks, advertisers — they love the tried and true and those known brands." Instead, it was a recipe that led to films built around spectacle and excitement, with studios relying on huge franchises and superhero fanaticism to draw in ever-higher box office receipts. But as recently as 2023, a string of blockbuster bombs suggested audiences were no longer as interested in that fare. Chasing those audiences, Dergaradedian says, meant studios started making movies that might appeal to even wider demographics. And over the last two and a half years, he says that's led to PG movies out-grossing PG-13 movies for the first time. That spurred a return to films and shows that people remembered from their own childhoods, he said. Film titles that were already thought of as wholesome and accessible, or were remade to be as inoffensive as possible, as with Lilo & Stitch, a live-action remake with a sanitized ending that drew wide criticism. It was a move foreshadowed by Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman, who told the LA Times ahead of the film's premiere that changes were made to the original story because "to do the kind of box office that I think we're going to do, you need to get everybody."The nostalgia impulse Robert Thompson, Syracuse University's professor of television and popular culture, says the desire to return to familiar stories far predates movies; as evidenced by The Odyssey being viewed as a sequel to The Iliad, and both being retellings of ancient Greek myth. Even genre itself is a larger extension of the remake, according to Thompson. Likening it to the auto industry, he says stories — like cars — historically couldn't be made for each individual audience member's tastes. Making narratives similar enough to fit a genre was the solution. "You're not going to make each driver an individual automobile. You've got to churn those things off of an assembly line," he said. "And that's what genre is all about … getting something that works and keep doing it. Over and over again." The problem is what Thompson believes is potentially driving this current cycle of remakes and reboots: A reactionary shift to the digital age's fracturing of pop culture. As the internet and streaming democratized entertainment, we went from consuming media from a few dominant viewpoints to a landscape full of competing productions giving voices to demographics that never had them before. That complicated what sorts of stories and stances were viewed as right or acceptable, Thompson says. The ensuing fear and discomfort some felt fed a desire to return to a simpler time; to recreate a media landscape they viewed as preserving traditional social norms, "because we celebrate this traditional, fictionally perfect past." He suggests our current glut of rose-coloured stories celebrating that past has reverberated through media. "In the sense of, 'Let's just go back to when things were simple. Let's go back to when things were good. Let's make art great again.' "


Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
This week's TV: Paul Reiser, Abbi Jacobson star in a new animated comedy, plus an Amanda Knox series
What else is coming down the TV pike this week? The Legoization of the world continues with the premiere of 'LEGO Masters Jr. , ' the young folks' version of the 'LEGO Masters' game show. Hosted by Kelly Osbourne (daughter of It's been many years since the Dallas Cowboys were dominant, but they make for juicy storytelling as long as Jerry Jones is in charge. The Netflix series 'America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys' tells the story of the Jones era, from the Arkansas oilman's controversial decision to fire beloved head coach Tom Landry in 1989, through the glory years of the 1990s, and up to the mediocre present. The series premieres Tuesday. Are we not men? The new wave band that preached 'de-evolution' gets a new moment in the sun with Do you subscribe to the The Swimmer ,' the 1968 adaptation of the John Cheever story starring Burt Lancaster. It's about suburban complacency, but it's also one of cinema's most devastating portraits of alcoholism. You may have noticed that TV can't get enough of true crime and tabloid scandal. The latest offering is 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,' a limited series starring Grace Van Patten as the woman wrongfully convicted of the 2007 murder of fellow exchange student Meredith Kercher. It premieres Wednesday on Hulu. Chris Vognar can be reached at