The Duffer Brothers are hard at work on the post-Stranger Things era of their career, producing several new series for Netflix. The Duffers’ third new production of 2026 is about to drop; Titled The Boroughs, the show is set in “a seemingly picturesque retirement community,” where some geriatric protagonists stumble upon “an otherworldly threat” that is “stealing the one thing they don’t have… time.” That description sounds a lot like a flip on the premise of Stranger Things, using older characters instead of younger characters.
In fact, the premises of the two shows are so similar that Stranger Things fans have had a theory that The Boroughs is actually set in the same universe as Hawkins, Indiana, and the dark Upside Down dimension. As the press tour for The Boroughs unfolds, the showrunners are directly addressing whether the series has any Stranger Things connections.
Screen Rant’s Ash Crossan sat down with The Boroughs showrunner Jeffrey Addiss, and asked the question that fans have been wondering: are these shows connected, or do they exist in completely separate universes?
“Entirely separate worlds,” Addiss confirmed. “I know there are some theories out there that we’re a thing. We’re not. Matt and Ross [Duffer] and all of them who make Stranger Things, that’s Stranger Things. We’re not playing in their playground. They have an awesome playground, but we’re building over here.”
That’s about as definitive an answer as you can get these days.
The Stranger Things franchise has expanded past the main series. A stage play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, premiered in 2023, and its lore (about the origin of Henry Creel) was woven into the final season of the main show. Word is that the stage production is getting filmed to air on television.
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 has just aired on Netflix. The animated series is set between the second and third seasons of the main show, and follows the Hawkins kids as they (and a new character, Nikki Baxter) investigate the emergence of new monsters and supernatural threats.
Finally, a live-action Stranger Things spinoff is in development at Netflix. Early teases point to a possible anthology series, with standalone stories of different people’s encounters with the Upside Down and its creatures.
You can stream Stranger Things and The Boroughs on Netflix. Discuss the franchise with us on the ComicBook Forum.
