Is 'Stranger Things: Tales From '85' Canon? Here's the Answer

The first official trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 has finally arrived. But many fans are still plagued by one question: Is the 3D animated TV series canon? Let’s find out.

Tales From ’85 takes place during the winter of 1985, which means it’s set between seasons 2 and 3 of the flagship Netflix series, which ended on December 31 with the Season 5 finale.

It brings back all the main characters — Eleven, Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max, Hopper, Steve, and Nancy (Joyce is unconfirmed) — for all-new adventures in the town of Hawkins.

Before we go any further, watch the official new trailer below:

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What’s Tales From ’85 About?

“Welcome back to Hawkins in the winter of 1985, where the original characters face new monsters — and a paranormal mystery — in this epic animated series,” Netflix’s blurb reads.

While the upcoming series has all the ingredients that made the main Netflix series so enjoyable — horror, humor, great characters, cool monsters, and the ’80s vibes — many fans have expressed concern about how it fits in canonically with its live-action counterpart.

Is Tales From ’85 Canon? Clone Wars Offers Some Answers

Is Tales From ’85 canon? Well, the answer isn’t so straightforward.

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.

First, it’s worth noting that it’s set between seasons — if the creatives didn’t care about continuity, they wouldn’t have set it in a previously unexplored part of the Stranger Things timeline where something could plausibly occur. That alone tells us they care about canon.

What really has fans concerned is why none of the events in Tales From ’85 have been mentioned in the main show. Well, the short and simple answer is that the animated series hadn’t been developed back then. You can make the same argument about Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Until that series existed, those events never transpired off-screen in the three years that separate the films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. But now, they do.

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Sure, from Stranger Things Season 3 onwards, none of the characters talked about any Upside Down-related threats that transpired between seasons 2 and 3.

But therein lies a loophole, right? Just because we don’t see the likes of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) discuss their “winter of 1985” adventures, that doesn’t mean those conversations aren’t taking place off screen.

You might scoff or roll your eyes at that, but let’s go back to Star Wars. Just because Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) never mentioned Ahsoka Tano in the two prequel films, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t talk about her between scenes. There’s a lot we don’t see him do. It’s this kind of uncharted territory that allows creatives to take liberties.

The Stranger Things Spinoff Is Inspired by The Real Ghostbusters

Neither the Duffer brothers nor Tales From ’85 showrunner and EP Eric Robles appear to have confirmed outright whether or not the show is canon. Although they’re clearly respecting the lore. For instance, we know that Eleven closed the gate to the Upside Down at the end of Season 2. Tales From ’85 acknowledges this, because its new monsters aren’t from the Upside Down — they’re created from residual matter from the shadow dimension.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, Robles revealed how he’d found “loopholes” to create new monsters despite the Upside Down being sealed off from Hawkins during this gap between seasons. He said:

“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.”

With all that said, and while The Clone Wars offers a lot of understanding about how Tales From ’85 fits in with its own franchise, perhaps one of the biggest indicators that this show isn’t canon is the fact that the Duffer brothers have said that it’s heavily inspired by Saturday morning ’80s cartoons. And in particular, The Real Ghostbusters.

Last year, Robles told Deadline that the popular Ghostbusters cartoon was a major influence in setting the show’s tone and visual design.

“It all went back to The Real Ghostbusters,” he said. “It was silly but had a handful of dark, creepy episodes and we just kept talking about that. That became the north star for us.”

The Real Ghostbusters follows the events of the original 1984 film, Ghostbusters. However, although it respects the lore and continuity established in that film, it forges its own, introducing new supernatural threats, storylines, and characters, much like Tales From ’85.

For the most part, The Real Ghostbusters takes part between the 1984 film and Ghostbusters II (1989), but it bypasses the sequel with two more years’ worth of episodes. But while the cartoon adopts the continuity of that first film, the 1989 sequel doesn’t go out of its way to return that favor, as it doesn’t acknowledge the cartoon series at all, meaning the two operate in different timelines.

Not even Afterlife and Frozen Empire bothered to fold The Real Ghostbusters into canon.

So, Is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Canon?

Is this what Robles meant when he said The Real Ghostbusters was their “north star”?

Was he referring to the fact that it’s not really canon with its flagship, live-action counterpart, or to the episodic nature of the series with regards to its weekly supernatural threats? Perhaps both. Either way, it seems like Tales From ’85 has indeed found some clever “loopholes” to justify giving us more adventures from the Hawkins gang.

Maybe both things can be true: the upcoming series is, for the most part, canon, but isn’t too concerned with what the characters in the main show did or didn’t talk about.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 stars Brett Gipson (Jim Hopper), Luca Diaz (Mike Wheeler), Brooklyn Davey Norstedt (Eleven), Braxton Quinney (Dustin Henderson), Elisha Williams (Lucas Sinclair), Ben Plessala (Will Byers), Jolie Hoang-Rappaport (Max Mayfield), and Jeremy Jordan (Steve Harrington), and Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo, and Lou Diamond Phillips in undisclosed roles.

It premieres on Netflix on April 23. Netflix hasn’t confirmed the number of episodes yet.

Stranger Things seasons 1 — 5 are now streaming on Netflix.

Are you excited about Tales From ’85? What do you think of the new trailer? Let us know in the comments!