If you thought the Stranger Things fandom would calmly accept the Netflix Season 5 finale and move on with their lives, you clearly haven’t met the internet. Stranger Things fans are the new Snyderbros. They just won’t accept that it’s over. Since the finale premiered on December 31, fans have been pulling the story apart and taping it back together again in hopes of finding every possible clue about hidden episodes and alternate endings. And if you thought “Conformity Gate” was outthere, wait until you hear the new Stranger Things theory that’s going around.
For those who don’t know, “Conformity Gate” was a fan theory that argued that the epilogue in “The Rightside Up,” set 18 months after the Hawkins crew defeats Vecna, wasn’t real. At all. According to the theory, the ending was a fabricated reality created by Vecna himself, played by Jamie Campbell Bower. Netflix fans believed that the real ending would drop a few days later. January 7 to be exact. But… nothing happened. There was no big reveal. No hidden episode.
But do you think that stopped fans from dreaming up more new dates and new theories?
When Netflix released One Last Adventure on January 12, a behind-the-scenes documentary about Season 5, some fans convinced themselves this was secretly Chapter 9 in disguise. But it really wasn’t. It was exactly what Netflix said it was: a doccie about the making of the show.
Because of this, some viewers didn’t just dislike the epilogue; they rejected the entire season completely. Soon, petitions went up demanding an extended cut and, not surprisingly, it actually pulled in hundreds of thousands of signatures.
Out of that frustration came another strange Stranger Things theory: maybe the whole show is one massive Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The theory leans on how often the series uses the tabletop game to frame its mythology. It sounds neat, but the finale doesn’t really support it. What it does leave open is one major question. Is Eleven alive or dead? Millie Bobby Brown’s character vanishes in an Upside Down explosion, and Mike Wheeler, played by Finn Wolfhard, offers his own D&D explanation for how she might have survived.
But there wasn’t confirmation. Just a cliffhanger… for just in case Netflix decides to pull them all back again sometime in the future.
Now the Stranger Things theory machine has latched onto something new: Stranger Things: Tales From ’85. The upcoming 3D animated series sits between Seasons 2 and 3 and brings back the full gang. The first trailer raised eyebrows, mostly because it introduces new monsters, characters, and events no one ever mentions in the actual show. Why wouldn’t anyone talk about a whole paranormal winter in 1985?
The practical answer is boring but honest. The show didn’t exist back then. It’s the same logic that asks you to accept that Star Wars: The Clone Wars happened off-screen during the prequel era. Still, Tales From ’85 showrunner Eric Robles offered a more story-friendly explanation. In an interview last year with Entertainment Weekly, he explained how he searched for loopholes in the main series timeline. “I dissected the [main live-action] show, looking for any loopholes. I found a few of ’em. And then I found this one idea that I was just like, ‘Oh s—! I think that’s it.’ What is this big idea? Hawkins Lab science meets Upside Down matter. There’s a chain reaction to the creatures that are in our world and the things that are popping up.”
That explains the monsters shown in the trailer. They aren’t sneaking in from the Upside Down. They’re created from its leftovers.
Of course, Stranger Things fans still aren’t fully sold. A new theory suggests Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is nothing more than a D&D campaign run by Mike “The Storyteller” Wheeler, voiced by Luca Diaz. The clue everyone points to is Mike’s line in the trailer: “The big snowstorm is coming next week — that’s when we’ll start the campaign.” Reddit threads are already packed with fans saying they’ll treat the show as non-canon unless it turns out to be a game or a dream. Some even hope for that outcome.
YouTube creators like Filmstocked and Danbo have gone further, tying this idea back to Conformity Gate. In their version, Mike is still trapped in Vecna’s reality, retelling events from 1985 that never actually happened.
Unfortunately, the Duffer brothers haven’t hinted at anything that wild. They’ve said the series takes heavy inspiration from ’80s Saturday morning cartoons. That’s it. Robles confirmed The Real Ghostbusters as a key influence, noting how it respected the original film’s lore while doing its own thing. Netflix’s own description leans into that too, promising new monsters and a paranormal mystery in winter 1985.
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 premieres on Netflix on April 23. Whether this new chapter is canon, a campaign, or something in between, one thing’s clear: Hawkins never really lets you leave.
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