The ‘Stranger Things’ Finale Already Told Us What the Spinoff Will Be About

The era of Stranger Things as we know it came to an end on New Year’s Day. But, as we know all too well, shows that are too successful to end go the route of spinoffs, and Stranger Things is no exception. Outside of its animated series, the Duffer Brothers have shed the tiniest bit of light on what their show’s spin-off will center on.

In a new interview with Variety, in which the Duffer Brothers tried their damndest to keep the spirit of Stranger Things‘ ambiguous ending ambiguous, they were pressed on what they were cooking with a mysterious MacGuffin introduced in Vecna’s backstory during the final episode. In the scene, Vecna (A.K.A. Mr. Whatsit, A.K.A. Young Henry Creel) encounters a paranoid, bloodied man carrying a briefcase inside a cave. After getting shot in the hand when the man accuses the boy scout of being sent by someone to get him, Henry reacts in kind by bashing the mysterious man’s head in with a rock. Afterwards, he opens the briefcase and discovers a red glowing rock that corrupts his body. The dying words of said man are a warning: “You must resist it. It will consume you. It will consume all.”

Despite how overly long the final episode of Stranger Things was, clocking in with a two-hour-plus run time, who the mysterious man was, why he was carrying a briefcase with a red rock, and who was after said man were all left up in the air. Granted, not in a Game of Thrones “they forgot” kinda way—but as a dangling plot thread. When pressed by Variety to clarify what that rock was all about, Matt Duffer struggled with how to describe it with clarity. When Variety offered the phrase “spinoffy,” Matt acquiesced, apologizing for how tight-lipped they’ve been about where the series will go in its inevitable spinoffs.

“Spinoffy, yeah. You pinned us down. So annoying. I do want to explain, just because people’s expectations go in certain directions: The spinoff is going to delve into that and explain that, and you’re going to understand it,” Matt Duffer told Variety. “But it’s a completely different mythology. So it’s not a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that. It’s very fresh and very new, but yes, it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining.”

Ross Duffer followed up by giving a progress report on the Stranger Things spin-off, revealing that they’re already working on it. Matt piggybacked on his brother’s reply, saying that the Stranger Things spinoff will act as a fresh start for them, providing the series creators a clean slate to work with “completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology.” So for all those folks holding out hope for the Duffer Brothers to provide some closure over whether The Right Side Up hard confirms or not the fate of its core cast, you’re going to have to hold on to the ambiguity of its ending and decide for yourself which fate works best for you.

Among the more immediate Stranger Things spinoff projects coming to Netflix, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a 3DCG animated series set between seasons two and three, is slated to premiere on the streamer later this year.

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