Stranger Things is an American supernatural horror web television series created by the Duffer Brothers. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about it!
1. It stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, and Matthew Modine.
2. The plot follows the disappearance of a young boy, and a telekinetic girl who helps his friends in their search, while the boy’s older brother, mother, and the town police chief start their own investigations
3. The show is set in 1980s Indiana and is a homage to ’80s pop culture, inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Stephen King and George Lucas, among others.
4. The show was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016.
5. It received positive reviews for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, soundtrack, directing, writing, and homages to 1980s genre films.
6. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) had to shave most of her hair off for the show. As can be expected of any 11 year old girl, it was a terrifying prospect.
7. The Duffers showed her how cool Charlize Theron looked in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), after which Millie agreed to it.
8. The directors also told Millie they wanted her performance to resemble E.T.
9. They tested their idea for the series by cutting together a fake trailer for the show, using clips from more than 25 movies.
10. They auditioned 906 boys and 307 girls to find their young leads.
11. The official poster for the series was created by Kyle Lambert. It was done in an art style inspired by acclaimed poster/album artwork artist Drew Struzan, who has created official posters for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, E.T. And several others.
12. The font for the credits and episode titles is the same as that used on Dungeons & Dragons source books.
13. The state trooper guarding the morgue is reading “Cujo” by Stephen King. This is one of the show’s many nods to the author’s work.
14. Sheriff Hopper’s trailer reportedly only cost the art department $1 to buy.
15. Caleb McClaughlin, the actor who plays Lucas, requested to wear a camouflage bandana during the show. He’s seen wearing one in the final three episodes.
16. The kids formed a close bond by starting a group chat before shooting even began.
17. The Demogorgon, according to Dragon Magazine, is considered the most powerful villain in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It rules as a Demon Prince of the Abyss, an ever-changing plane of chaotic evil.
18. Gaten Matarazzo’s (who plays Dustin) voice changed so much by the time production ended that the sound team was unable to use him for additional dialogue recording.
19. Winona Ryder portrays a mother whose child has gone missing. In real life, Ryder dedicated the film Little Ladies (1994) to Polly Hannah Klaas, a young girl from her hometown of Petaluma, California, who went missing and was later revealed to have been kidnapped and brutally murdered.
20. She offered a $200,000 reward for anyone with information on the subject, and as of 2016 she still remains a strong supporter of the Polly Klaas Foundation for Prevention of child abduction, and aid in the search.
21. Winona Ryder is admittedly a late bloomer in terms of electronic devices and hereby didn’t know what streaming was, when she was approached for this Netflix series.
22. The twins actresses that play Holly Wheeler are the same twins who played the original baby Judith in the Walking Dead.
23. The Duffer Brothers originally wanted to make the upcoming remake of Stephen King’s “IT” but were turned down.
24. They then went on to make Stranger Things which is why it is littered with homages to Stephen King movies.
25. Of the many nods to Stephen King in this series, one of the most obvious is in episode 4 (“The Body”) when the kids travel a significant stretch along the railroad tracks.
26. Much of the story in the film “Stand By Me” (and in the novella it is based on, titled “The Body”), includes kids traveling along railroad tracks.
27. John Carpenter’s films are a touchstone for the series; for instance, the movie poster for “The Thing” appears in several scenes. Carpenter has also composed the scores for several of his films.
28. The main theme is highly reminiscent of Carpenter’s electronic scores.
29. In another nod to 80’s movies, Police Chief Jim Hopper is named after the character Arnold Schwarzenegger first goes looking for in the 1987 film “Predator”.
30. Stranger Things shares also many similarities with J.J Abrams film “Super 8” which was also created and heavily inspired as a throwback to 1980s film, writing and themes – especially the influence of Steven Spielberg.
31. Winona Ryder was born in 1971. The series takes place mainly in 1983. Ryder turned 12 years old that year, roughly the same age in real life as all of the main young child characters were in the year the series takes place.
32. The series bears similarities to the film ‘Liberty’, created in 2003, which centers around a gifted/telepathic young woman undergoing experiments underground in a secret Government lab facility.
33. They used 1200 pounds of Epsom salt to get Eleven to float in the kiddie pool.
34. The series was shot on a digital cinema camera, but to achieve the vintage look, they added a layer of scanned film grain to the colouring process.
35. The Duffer brothers have a 30-page document that maps what the Upside Down is, and the nature of the monster.
36. In a piece for EW, the directors noted, “when Holly watches the family argue in in ‘Chapter One’… When she gets upset by Dustin and sinks into her chair in ‘Chapter Two’… When Joyce asks if she saw something in the wall and she confidently replies ‘yes’… None of that was scripted.”
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