Masuk Free Press

Is the upcoming Stranger Things cartoon a well-intended piece of work, or just a cheap cash grab?

With the reception to the Stranger Things finale largely negative, most hardcore fans were left unsatisfied and disappointed with the show’s creators.

Before the final episode’s release, Tales from 85, an animated series set between seasons 2 and 3 of the storyline, was announced.

On Feb. 2, 2026, a teaser trailer was released, featuring all the fan-favorite characters, along with a newly introduced character, Nikki Baxter. Tales from 85 is set to release on Netflix on Apr. 23, nearly four months after the show’s lackluster end.

“I’m not impressed after watching the first trailer. It feels a bit like a retcon. After all, none of the characters in the main show discuss the events of the spinoff at any point,” says Erik Kain from Forbes.com. 

Where fans start to find an issue with this, however, is at the prospect of the teaser trailer. 

“Of course, longtime Stranger Things fans will likely notice that the timeline creates a plot hole. If Eleven sealed the portal to the Upside Down in Stranger Things Season 2, then how are the kids still dealing with monsters before Stranger Things Season 3?” Says Jamie Lovett from cbr.com. 

An important plot point of the original Stranger Things show is when the character, Eleven/Jane, saves the main group at the end of season 2 by using her powers to close the gate leading to the Upside Down, which is why in season 3 the characters are so shocked when having to face off against monsters from the other dimension again. All of the time spanning from the end of Season 2 to the beginning of  Season 3, the gate should have been closed, or at least thought to have been closed by the core group, which makes the whole premise of the cartoon inherently inaccurate to the timeline.

Not only are the creators retroactively implementing a character never before seen, but they are also implementing new kinds of monsters from the Upside Down that completely contradict the original show’s content. 

“The new series is certainly being positioned as canon, but on the other hand, there are some details to suggest that canon isn’t necessarily that important.” Says Daniel Roberts from Insidethemagic.net.

Despite the creators of the cartoon claiming the show to be canon-compliant, it simply doesn’t make any sense. At no point whatsoever in the original show is it ever even mentioned that the party had any run-ins with anything from the Upside Down between the end of Season 2 to the beginning of Season 3, and they especially were never mentioned to have fought any new kind of demogorgon with a friend by the name of Nikki.

“I just feel, like, really frustrated because, like, they’re adding random characters and these monsters don’t even look, like, scary. This franchise is scary, and it’s in-depth, but now the cartoon is just killing them.” Says junior at Masuk, Melanie Ledee.

The way the teaser depicts the show also leads people to believe the creators are trying to reach a younger audience, even though the original show has always been TV-14 or higher. They are trying to appeal to the largest possible audience to make the most money from this show, making it an obvious, poor attempt at a cash grab. 

It’s tragic to witness a show that was initially created with passion and dedication for making a great story, now turn into a money-hungry, last-ditch effort to milk a few extra dollars from their now-dying franchise. 

They worked so hard to carefully craft these characters and their storylines; now, with this new cartoon, they appear to be setting up the sidelining of what used to be one of the main characters in favor of the new character. They also seem to be erasing previously established relationships to create space for a new dynamic with the new character within the group.

A crucial aspect of one of the main characters, Will Byers, is that he has to grow up as a queer child in a small town in Indiana in the 80s, where he is repeatedly made fun of by his peers. Will was bullied simply for being a quiet kid who enjoyed drawing, and then was assumed to be gay. So, to add a new character with a neon pink mohawk and piercings in the 80s feels as though the creators are stealing the spotlight from the challenges Will faces and projecting them onto her. Plot-wise, if Will got bullied for being nerdy and introverted, then how on earth would a character like Nikki even survive school with her appearance?

Obviously, Nikki can’t logically get referenced in Stranger Things proper since she wasn’t even conceived of during the second or third seasons. So it makes no sense to me why all involved thought that was a vital idea for this spinoff.” Nick Venable from Yahoo.com.

Not only is Nikki’s character design very inaccurate in terms of what 80s punk fashion would actually look like, but she would also most definitely face societal troubles for her appearance and beliefs, which is something that everyone in the main group, especially Will, has already been shown to have gone through. It feels very redundant to go through this process for a random character that the fans don’t have any prior attachment to. 

There is reason to believe that Nikki will likely steal Mike’s spot as Will’s closest friend in order to focus more on fueling Mike and Eleven’s relationship, whilst sidelining the importance of Mike and Will’s friendship. Once again diminishing the importance of Will’s pre-established bond with Mike in favor of casting him off to befriend a new character, whilst the other characters get proper relationships and development. 

It’s also quite obvious the lack of care that went into the show once it is taken note that Lucas’s skin tone is shades lighter than his actual skin tone in the original source material, as well as Mike’s nose being much less prominently arched, and in some shots of the trailer it’s almost hard to discern Will from Mike because of how similar their character models look, proving how little effort the creators put into the show.

“In the scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter, but for a show whose creators have always been such sticklers for canon, it boggles the mind to think that Nikki Baxter will forever live only in an animated bubble of reality that never gets discussed at any point in the characters’ lives.” Says Nick.

Nikki is an afterthought of a character that takes the spotlight away from the pre-existing characters that the fans already know and love. She also confuses what is canon within the storyline, as she is never mentioned once in the original show.

“The timing is also weird. Releasing this between Seasons 2 and 3 would have made sense. Now, just a few months after the main show’s finale, it’s just awkward. What can we really get out of a prequel (and not even a prequel that takes place when Hopper and Joyce were young, but one wedged in-between seasons)?” says Kain.

All in all, Tales from 85 serves little purpose in the franchise other than to add on to the already negative reputation after the finale’s fiasco just mere months ago. It confuses the narrative, conflicts with the canon, and encourages watchers to feed into a recent trend with show creators, thinking they can put out slop to receive monetary gain, without putting in any actual effort into making a well-thought-out piece of work.