The first full trailer for Stranger Things: Tales from '85 is here – and it's giving us big Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed. And as a 30... something who grew up on the Mystery Inc's live-action flicks, I mean that as a compliment.
Set between seasons 2 and 3 of the original show, the animated spin-off is set to see Eleven (voiced by Brooklyn Davey Norstedt) and co kick off a new D&D campaign and wind up "unravelling a paranormal mystery". In short, business as usual.
Well, kind of... If you're a Stranger Things fan, then you'll know 1985 was the year the Starcourt Mall was built – and subsequently burnt down, too, during our Hawkins heroes' encounter with the dreaded Mind Flayer. It doesn't seem likely that we'll see the big guy pop up in the new show, though, with the recently released promo teasing all the terrifying new creatures The Party will be forced to face off against this time around.
"I grew up watching [Jaws], and we play with the same trope in the sense [that] underneath all that snow, there's something lurking," showrunner Eric Robles teased to Tudum, as he opened up about one particularly shark-like enemy. "You just never know where that thing's going to come out and grab you,” he explains.
As teased in the clip, which you can watch above, the first episode picks up shortly after the Snow Ball and clues us in on what the fantasy-loving youngsters got up to in the wintery months that followed. The whole gang's present, from Will (Benjamin Plessala) and Mike (Luca Diaz) to Steve (Jeremy Jordan), but as it stands, we're most intrigued by Nikki (Marty Supreme's Odessa A'zion).
The pink-haired newcomer obviously didn't feature in season 3, so we hope that doesn't mean something terrible happens to her in the show. Showrunner Eric Robles has assured fans she's simply a transfer student with a nomadic family but after what the franchise did to Joseph Quinn's Eddie, we've learned not to get too attached.
Other fresh faces are set to include Anna Baxter (Janeane Garofalo), Daniel Fischer (Lou Diamond Phillips), and Cosmo, who'll be voiced by horror icon Robert Englund, having brought Henry Creel's ill-fated father Victor in the original series.
Stranger Things: Tales from '85 releases on April 23. While we wait, check out our picks of the best Netflix shows for some watchlist inspiration.
