Stranger Things Knowledge

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Netflix's Predecessors Rejected the Pitch Around 20 Times

Long before it became one of the biggest shows on the planet, Stranger Things was turned down by roughly 15 to 20 different networks and studios. Execs weren't sure what to do with a story mixing kids, adults, sci-fi and horror all at once, and some even suggested reworking it into either a straight-up kids show or an adult mystery centred on Hopper. The Duffers held their ground and kept pitching the version they actually wanted to make.

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Eleven and Steve Were Both Originally Supposed to Die in Season 1

Two of the show's most enduring characters nearly never made it past their debut season. Eleven was written to sacrifice herself to save Hawkins, while Steve was meant to stay a flat, unlikeable jerk who wasn't going to last long anyway. It was really the actors themselves, Millie Bobby Brown's intensity and Joe Keery's easy charm, that convinced the Duffers to let both characters live and grow.

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Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' Hit Number One Decades Later

When Max Mayfield uses this 1985 track as her lifeline against Vecna in Season 4, nobody expected it to send a nearly 40-year-old song rocketing back up the charts. Kate Bush herself, notoriously private and rarely public about anything, posted a heartfelt statement thanking the show's young fans for giving the track, in her words, 'a whole new lease of life'.

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The Duffers Only Made Stranger Things Because They Were Rejected From It

While the 2017 remake of Stephen King's It was in early development, Matt and Ross Duffer actually pitched themselves as directors for it and got turned down. Rather than sulk, they redirected all that Stephen King energy into their own passion project instead, which became Stranger Things. There's a nice bit of irony in the fact that Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler, ended up starring in the actual It movies anyway.

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The Duffers Pranked Noah Schnapp's Mum With a Fake Corpse

For the infamous 'body in the quarry' reveal, the props team built an eerily accurate fake corpse of young Will Byers. The Duffer Brothers have admitted they took it a step too far when they surprised Noah Schnapp's own mother with it on set, genuinely startling her before she came round and started taking selfies with the thing.

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Dacre Montgomery Deliberately Slimmed Down to Play Billy

Dacre Montgomery had built a noticeably muscular physique for Power Rangers, but when he landed the role of Billy Hargrove he made a point of shedding that gym-honed look. He wanted Billy to feel like a real teenager from the mid-80s rather than a superhero, and leaned into that more ordinary build to make the character's swagger and menace feel grounded.

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Dustin's Missing Teeth Are Based on a Real Condition Gaten Matarazzo Has

Dustin's claim that he has 'no collarbones' actually points to a genuine condition called cleidocranial dysplasia, which Gaten Matarazzo was born with. The Duffers wrote it directly into the show as an explanation for why the character was missing teeth in the earlier seasons, turning something very personal to the actor into part of Dustin's identity.

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A Glitter Mishap Once Shut Down Filming

During Season 1, Millie Bobby Brown showed up on set inexplicably covered head to toe in glitter, forcing the crew to pause production for nearly 45 minutes while everyone worked to get her cleaned up. The Duffers have said it was one of those moments that reminded them she was still just an 11-year-old kid, despite carrying a show alongside a cast of adults.

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On-Screen Smoking Sparked a Real Netflix Policy Change

Season 3's frequent shots of Joyce and Hopper lighting up cigarettes landed the show on a list of the worst offenders for on-screen tobacco use, according to a Truth Initiative survey. Netflix responded publicly, promising that future projects rated TV-14 or below would go smoke and vape free unless historical accuracy genuinely called for it.

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Starcourt Mall Was a Real Abandoned 80s Shopping Centre

The gloriously nostalgic Starcourt Mall in Season 3 wasn't built from scratch. The crew filmed inside Atlanta's real Gwinnett Place Mall, which actually opened in 1984, just a year before the season is set. The production designer described the location as still holding onto 'echoes' of its original 80s showpiece glory, even with half its stores long abandoned.