Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things season 4.
While Stranger Things arguably doesn’t need any spinoffs after the show reaches its conclusion, season 4 of the Netflix hit has unveiled at least one potential show that could take the fictional universe in a totally different direction. According to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Stranger Things spinoffs are an inevitability once the show wraps up after season 5. This announcement doesn’t come as a major surprise since Stranger Things is one of the streaming service’s biggest titles.
However, the question of how Stranger Things will pull off numerous spinoffs is hard to answer. While Stranger Things season 4 fixed some season 3 mistakes, the show still reaffirmed its status as a small-town mystery whose most intriguing plots are limited to Hawkins, Indiana. As a result, it can be tough to picture Stranger Things expanding the fictional universe of the show once the self-contained story of Eleven, Hopper, Mike, and the Byers clan is wrapped up for good.
Fortunately, one of Stranger Things season 4’s goofier subplots accidentally unveiled a perfect spinoff for the series, and it is neither a mystery nor another sci-fi horror show. The quirky chaos of Suzie’s Salt Lake City home, seen in “The Dive” (season 4, episode 6), proved that a spin-off focusing on Dustin’s girlfriend and her likably dysfunctional family could be comedy gold. While Stranger Things season 4 made a Nightmare On Elm Street remake harder by borrowing from Freddy Krueger’s playbook for the main villain Vecna’s modus operandi, the show also proved that family comedies in the vein of Yours, Mine, and Ours and Cheaper By The Dozen could still work in 2022 with this comical storyline.
ittedly, a broad comedy series would be a big tonal departure for the Stranger Things universe. However, it is not as major a stretch as it may seem. The episode’s director, Stranger Things stalwart Shawn Levy, previously helmed 2003’s megahit family comedy Cheaper By The Dozen. This, combined with the fact that Susie was already a popular breakout character in Stranger Things season 3 and the fact the show’s broad comedy quotient has increased with each season, proves that a spinoff focused on Susie’s family life could work. The Stranger Things season 4 split release means viewers didn’t get to see much of Suzie so far in the season, but her interest in all things scientific also means that a spinoff centered on her family could still incorporate some sci-fi/fantasy/horror elements.
Stranger Things season 4 has seen the show’s tone shift toward supernatural horror whereas season 3 featured kaiju-style monster madness. In both cases, however, the nerdy interests of Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will have given the boys (and later Eleven and Max) a way to discuss inter-dimensional monsters and paranormal phenomena while still sounding like relatively realistic young characters. Similarly, Suzie’s fascination with science could mean that a Stranger Things spinoff focused on her home life could bounce between being a Conners-style subversive family sitcom and a horror/sci-fi-inflected mystery more akin to the original series. This could result in a Stranger Things spinoff that feels as tonally unique and original as the show itself, which is always the hardest part of spawning one show from another earlier hit.