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6 'Stranger Things' Characters Who Deserve Their Own Spinoff After Season 5

Closeup of Derek smirking and looking to the side in Stranger Things.Image via Netflix

By Brad LaCour Published Jan 23, 2026, 8:46 PM EST Brad LaCour is a Senior List Writer for Collider. Based out of Los Angeles, California, Brad lives close enough to the stars but is too busy to find out where exactly they live. Brad is fairly certain he's seen Paul Stanley twice in a grocery store, but was too afraid to ask. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

The following article contains spoilers.Stranger Things has ended a legendary run on Netflix, but don’t expect the streamer to stop milking its favorite nostalgic cash cow. Within weeks, there’s already been a documentary about the show, and fans can expect to see an animated spinoff, Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, set to release later this year. Why stop there, though?

Stranger Things has a large cast of characters, and a few have more than earned the right to star in their own spinoffs. While it’s unlikely that we get a series around Bob (Sean Astin) as a guardian angel who helps with IT-related issues, there are a few obvious characters just waiting for a chance to become the next Frasier. (The first time, not the second time.) Here’s a taste of the kind of spinoffs we deserve as a nation

6 Eleven

Played by Millie Bobby Brown

Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven in Stranger Things 5Image via Netflix

For anyone who feels like Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) didn’t have a satisfying end to her arc, a spinoff would be the solution that could make everyone happy. No one within the fiction of the show or the audience at home has accepted that Eleven would simply die, so it’s time to throw that waffle-loving brain warrior into her own show. She’s had a chance to grow as a person in a loving environment, free from a lab where the employees preferred to be called papa, so now she’s ready to strike out on her own and nosebleed across the globe.

A spinoff starring Eleven could have her wandering from town to town doing odd jobs and helping locals like a modern-day western or The Incredible Hulk TV series. Because it’ll be a sci-fi television show, Eleven continues to come across unexplained phenomena that she must either help or fight. Sometimes it can be both, like in the episode that sees Eleven roll into a town where the residents are scared to come out after dark because of a creature in the woods. Eleven investigates to find a Sasquatch that she fights until she realizes it’s a baby squatch looking for its mom, and they exchange presents, because this is also the Christmas episode.

5 Robin Buckley

Played by Maya Hawke

Maya Hawke as Robin in Stranger Things in a work uniform looking over her shoulder in Season 3.Image via Netflix

Regardless of what her next adventure is, it would be interesting to follow Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) after she leaves Hawkins behind. First appearing in season three as a disaffected Scoops Ahoy employee alongside Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Robin quickly established herself as an exciting addition to the series. Robin was funny, engaging, and gave Steve a much-needed friend closer to his own age who would call him out instead of idolizing him like the other people in his life. New characters were always on the Stranger Things chopping block, but thankfully, Robin was one of the rare ones to make it to the end.

Robin would probably have never been fighting Stranger Things' Upside Down creatures if not for Steve, so a show starring Robin could just be a coming-of-age comedy. But since it’s TV, and there always needs to be a hook, she lands a gig at a big city radio station, but not the job she intended. While only applying for an intern position to get college credits, Robin is mistaken for the new hotshot program director and goes with it. Now she’s running the station while trying not to get found out as a fraud, spinning a bigger web of lies each episode, but having the time of her life doing it.

4 Dustin & Steve

Played by Gaten Matarazzo and Steve Harrington

Dustin and Steve walking on train tracks in 'Stranger Things' Season 2Image via Netflix

Maybe it’s a cheat to put two characters into one entry, but it would be a crime to separate the dynamic duo of Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve Harrington (Keery). To have one without the other would be like separating peanut butter and jelly, and no one eats a jelly sandwich voluntarily. Few would have likely predicted that the precocious Dustin and the popular jock Steve would become ride or die friends til the end, but the mismatched chemistry between the two elevated both already popular characters into untouchable fan favorites. While originally functioning as odd couple comedy relief, their relationship became a bond that made them closer to brothers than friends.

The beauty of a spinoff starring Dustin and Steve is that it doesn’t necessarily require a supernatural hook that some of the other characters might be dependent on to play to their strengths. The natural chemistry between Matarazzo and Keery means the premise could literally be as simple as the two buying a house together, and the audience sees their friendship tested as they learn to live with one another. The show could work as a straight, down-the-middle sitcom, which would be the type of budget-friendly programming Netflix wouldn’t cancel after two seasons. Go one step further, make the show in the style of a classic '90s sitcom with opening credits that involve each actor looking into the camera and smiling, and it would possess the same nostalgia bait that originally lured viewers into watching Stranger Things.

3 Nancy Wheeler

Played by Natalia Dyer

Nancy Wheeler wearing a purple Emerson shirt in Stranger ThingsImage Via Netflix

This is possibly a dark horse candidate for a spinoff, but Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) has the character qualities necessary to star in a spinoff. Nancy is intelligent, resourceful, and knows her way around an automatic weapon, and a series with her front and center could explore all three traits. Nancy reveals in the Stranger Things finale that she dropped out of school to work at a newspaper, so a possible follow-up series would already have her placed in a career that could expose her to week-to-week action.

Since Nancy has a nose for finding a story and can handle herself in a fight, she could star in a spiritual revival of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. No one at her new job gives her any respect, but that means she can fly under the radar investigating stories too unusual for the other reporters to take seriously. Like other famous TV sci-fi mysteries, Nancy encounters a new type of supernatural threat, like aliens or the chupacabra, each week in an effort to break a big story and make a name for herself in the world of news. Maybe she owns a van that holds all her weapons, but those are details Netflix can hammer out.

2 Jim Hopper

Played by David Harbour

David Harbour as Jim Hopper in Stranger Things.Image via Netflix

As one of the only characters on Stranger Things able to grow a beard, Jim Hopper (David Harbour) has stood out as a heroic presence in the sci-fi horror series. Although he was first introduced as a reluctant hero, Hopper has put his life on the line multiple times, and he adopted Eleven as his own daughter, fiercely protecting her regardless of the sacrifice involved. As Hopper, Harbour could play comedy and action hero at the same time, and the combo of those two marketable traits is key to placing him at the center of his own series.

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What helps determine a spin-off for Hopper is knowing that an impending marriage to Joyce (Winona Ryder) and a move to Montauk, New York, are in his future. So with that information in hand, we place Hopper in a series that is basically Magnum, P.I., where he immediately is fired as police chief in Montauk for punching the mayor or something equally self-destructive, and he works as a private eye. The series, titled Hopper, P.I., will function exactly like Magnum, P.I., but we swap Hawaii and a Ferrari for Montauk, New York, and a Honda Accord. Each episode sees Hopper solving crimes wearing Hawaiian shirts, treating Montauk like it’s Honolulu, because after a stint in a russian prison, Hopper views any beach like a tropical paradise.

1 Derek Turnbow

Played by Jake Connelly

Derek in a colorful shirt with his arms folded in Stranger Things.Image via Netflix

If there was one clear, breakout character from the final season of Stranger Things, it was “Delightful” Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly). Introduced as the bully that every other kid avoided at school, Derek would soon become a vital figure when he became the next target for Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). After initially putting up a fight against Will (Noah Schnapp) and the gang, he was recruited to work with the group in their struggle to save Hawkins, even after he was transported to Vecna’s realm. His bravery in the face of overwhelming odds allowed him to save Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), demonstrating that he was indeed now delightful and no longer “Dips**t Derek.”

It doesn’t matter what kind of spinoff Derek is in as long as Derek is put back onto the screen – stick him in the middle of a variety show wearing a sequined jumpsuit if that’s what it takes. What would be ideal, though, is since the characters are stepping into the '90s, place Derek as the lead of a Saved by the Bell-style teen sitcom. Have Derek talk to the camera like Zack Morris (Mark Paul-Gosselar), and then load the show down with every Stranger Things cameo that money can buy. Have Murray (Brett Gelman) return for an episode with some quickly resolved conspiracy plotline, bring Eduardo Franco back as Argyle because he never should have left, make Ted Wheeler (Joe Chrest) the principal of Derek’s school; it’s a Stranger Things party, and everyone is invited. And once per episode, Derek will smile, pause, and then say, “Suck my fat one!” and the laugh track will play so loud it can be heard from space.

Like Stranger Things TV-14 Drama Mystery Horror Science Fiction Release Date 2016 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Showrunner Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer Directors Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Nimród Antal, Uta Briesewitz