Development Stranger Things was created by Matt and Ross Duffer, known professionally as
the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as
showrunners and
head writers and direct many of the episodes. They wrote and produced their 2015 film
Hidden, in which they emulated the style of
M. Night Shyamalan. However, due to changes at
Warner Bros., its distributor, it did not see wide release and the Duffers were unsure of their future. To their surprise, television producer
Donald De Line approached them, impressed with
Hiddens script, and offered them the opportunity to work on episodes of
Wayward Pines with Shyamalan. The brothers were mentored by Shyamalan during the episode's production so that when they finished, they felt they were ready to produce their own television series. The Duffers prepared a script similar to the series' eventual pilot episode, along with a 20-page
pitch book to help shop the series to networks. They pitched the story to about 15 cable networks, all of whom felt a plot with children as leading characters would not work and asked the brothers to either make it a children's series or drop the children and focus on Hopper's investigation into the paranormal. and in April of the same year, the series was announced for a 2016 release. The Duffer Brothers stated that at the time they pitched to Netflix, the company had already been recognized for its original programming in shows such as
House of Cards and
Orange Is the New Black, with well-recognized producers behind them, and were ready to start giving upcoming producers like them a chance. book covers such as
Firestarter. The series was originally known as
Montauk. The setting was then
Montauk, New York, and nearby
Long Island locations. Montauk figured into several real-world
conspiracy theories involving
secret government experiments. The brothers had chosen Montauk as it had further Spielberg ties with the film
Jaws, where Montauk was used for the fictional setting of Amity Island. After deciding to change the narrative of the series to take place in the fictional town of Hawkins instead, the brothers felt they could now do things to the town, such as placing it under quarantine, that they really could not envision with a real location. To pitch the series, the Duffer Brothers showcased images, footage and music from classic 1970s and 1980s films such as
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
Poltergeist,
Hellraiser,
Stand by Me,
Firestarter,
A Nightmare on Elm Street and
Jaws, to establish the tone of the series. crafting it in the realm of science fiction and horror. Other influences cited by the Duffers include:
Stephen King novels; films produced by
Steven Spielberg,
John Carpenter,
David Lynch,
Wes Craven, and
Guillermo del Toro; Japanese
anime such as
Akira and
Elfen Lied; The primary antagonist for the final two seasons,
Vecna, was inspired by the villains that scared the brothers when they watched the movies and miniseries as children:
Freddy Krueger,
Pinhead, and
Pennywise. With Netflix as the platform, the Duffers were not limited to a typical 22-episode format, opting for the eight-episode approach. They had been concerned that a 22-episode season on broadcast television would make it difficult to "tell a cinematic story". Eight episodes allowed them to give time to characterization in addition to narrative development; if they had less time available, they would have had to remain committed to telling a horror film as soon as the monster was introduced and abandon the characterization. Regarding writing for the children characters of the series, the Duffers considered themselves outcasts from other students while in high school and thus found it easy to write for Mike and his friends, and particularly for Barb. The brothers' casting director Carmen Cuba had suggested Ryder for the role of Joyce, which the two were immediately drawn to because of her predominance in 1980s films. The Duffer Brothers had been interested in Harbour before, who until
Stranger Things primarily had smaller roles as villainous characters, and they felt that he had been "waiting too long for this opportunity" to play a lead, while Harbour himself was thrilled by the script and the chance to play "a broken, flawed, anti-hero character". Additional casting followed two months later with
Finn Wolfhard as Mike,
Millie Bobby Brown in an undisclosed role,
Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin,
Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas,
Natalia Dyer as Nancy, and
Charlie Heaton as Jonathan.
Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, among others. Actors auditioning for the children's roles read lines from
Stand by Me.
Jackson served as the basis of the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. Other shooting locations included the
Georgia Mental Health Institute as the Hawkins National Laboratory site,
Bellwood Quarry, and
Patrick Henry High School in
Stockbridge, Georgia, for the middle and high school scenes. Filming locations also included Emory University's Continuing Education Department, the former city hall in
Douglasville, Georgia, the
Georgia International Horse Park in
Conyers, Georgia, the probate court in
Butts County, Georgia, Old East Point Library and East Point First Baptist Church in
East Point, Georgia,
Fayetteville, Georgia,
Stone Mountain Park,
Palmetto, Georgia, and
Winston, Georgia. and the first season was filmed with a
RED Epic Dragon camera. Filming for the first season concluded in early 2016. Filming for the fourth season was slated to begin in January 2020 and to last through August. With the release of a February 2020 teaser for the season, the Duffers confirmed that production had started. Some filming for the fourth season took place at
Lukiškės Prison and nearby in
Vilnius, Lithuania. In March 2020, production was stopped due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and resumed that September. Filming for the fifth and final season was expected to start in June 2023, before the
2023 Writers Guild of America strike delayed it to January 8, 2024. Production began on that day and wrapped on December 20.
Visual effects To create the aged effect for the series, a
film grain was added over the footage, which was captured by scanning in film stock from the 1980s. The Duffer Brothers wanted to scare the audience, but not to necessarily make the series violent or gory, following in line with how the 1980s
Amblin Entertainment films drove the creation of the
PG-13 movie rating. They said such films were "much more about mood and atmosphere and suspense and dread than they are about gore", though they were not afraid to push into more scary elements, particularly towards the end of the first season. However, the six-month filming time left them little time to plan out and test practical effects rigs for some of the shots. They went with a middle ground of using constructed props, including one for the monster whenever they could, but for other shots, such as when the monster bursts through a wall, they opted to use digital effects. Post-production on the first season was completed the week before it was released to Netflix. Levy introduced the studio to the Duffer Brothers, who explained their vision of the 1980s-inspired series, which helped the studio to fix the concept the producers wanted. Later, but before filming, the producers sent Imaginary Forces the pilot script, the synth-heavy background music for the titles, as well as the various book covers from King and other authors that they had used to establish the title and imagery, and were looking for a similar approach for the series' titles, primarily using a typographical sequence. They took inspiration from several title sequences of works from the 1980s that were previously designed by Richard Greenberg under R/GA, such as
Altered States and
The Dead Zone. They also got input from Dan Perri, who worked on the title credits of several 1980s films. Various iterations included having letters vanish, to reflect the "missing" theme of the series, and having letters cast shadows on others, alluding to the mysteries, before settling into the sliding letters. The studio began working on the title sequence before filming, and took about a month off during the filming process to let the producers get immersed in the series and come back with more input. It makes extensive use of synthesizers in homage to 1980s artists and film composers including
Jean-Michel Jarre,
Tangerine Dream,
Vangelis,
Goblin,
John Carpenter,
Giorgio Moroder, and
Fabio Frizzi. According to Stein and Dixon, the Duffer Brothers had been fans of Survive's music since the 2014 film
The Guest. Once the series was green-lit, the Duffer Brothers contacted Survive around July 2015 to ask if they were still doing music; the two provided the production team with dozens of songs from their band's past to gain their interest, helping to land them the role. and
Kate Bush's "
Running Up That Hill" in the fourth and fifth seasons. Some of these licensed songs saw subsequent resurgence on sales charts after the respective seasons they featured in aired, most notably "Running Up That Hill" and
Metallica's "
Master of Puppets" in the fourth season, and
Limahl's "
The NeverEnding Story" in the third season. Soundtracks containing the original compositions and the licensed music for each season have been released by
Lakeshore Records. ==Release==