Some Strange Facts About Stranger Things Every Fan Should Know

“Stranger Things” mostly based on the famous works of Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, and John Carpenter, is a mix of investigative drama with supernatural elements. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s, the series deals with Eleven and her friends navigating their adolescence in this dangerous world filled with inter-dimensional beasts. Bringing back the elements of 80’s thrilling stories of sci-fi, horror, mysteries, that left us fearing our own shadow, the show soon became a phenomenon, and one of the favorite shows for all the age groups. Here are some facts about the series:

1. In the season 1, costume designer Malgosia Turzanska was looking for an army belt for the character Lucas. In an antique store she found one locked in a cabinet. On retrieving she discovered a name engraved on the backside, “Lucas”, name of the original owner.
2. Maxine “Max” Mayfield and Billy Hargrove have a difficult relationship where Billy treats Max in a controlling fashion and does not like to call her sister. In real life Sadie Sink and Dacre Montgomery are good friends. They together come up with ways to increase tension between their characters.
3. In Hawkins High, Steve Harrington played by Joe Keery is referred to as “King Steve” throughout the series for reasons such as his looks, popularity and athleticism. However this is homage to Stephen King who was the inspiration for the entire show.
4. The Duffer brothers made sure that the whole series plays homage to Stephen King in various ways. Fonts in the titles of episodes are similar to that of books by King, group of children fighting a powerful monster is similar to the novel “IT”, a girl with a superpower running from military is similar to novel “Firestarter”, communication through lights is similar to “Close Encounters of Third Kind”, “Stranger Things: Chapter Four: The Body” is based on the novel of the same name are a few examples.
5. Initially Steve Harrington was written as a big douchebag who would go on to rape Nancy Wheeler. However the Duffer brothers changed the character when Joe Kerry who plays Steve Harrington turned out to be likeable and charming.
6. Joyce Byers, a single mom with low level job owns a 1976 Ford Pinto, a car which has its own place in the history. In 1978, a lawsuit was filed against Ford Motor Company for, a Ford Pinto was bumped from behind and it caught fire, killing 3 teenage girls. Though the company won the case, it proved to be the downfall of that car model.
7. In one of the scenes where boys were confronted by the school bullies, Dustin was mocked for his teeth. It is explained that he suffers from “Clidocranial Dysplasia”, a rare genetic disorder. In reality Gaten Matarazzo, who plays the character Dustin, suffers from the same disorder and was born with it.
8. In 2019, Truth Initiative, an anti tobacco group, found “Stranger Things” to be the worst offender related to smoking on-screen. In response to that allegation, Netflix officials have assured that future projects with PG-13 ratings would be smoking free, except for historical or factual accuracy.
9. Majority of the young main cast members in the series are known to have musical talents.
10. Many character names in the series are based on the real celebrities famous during the 1980’s. For example, Dustin for Dustin Hoffman, Steve for Steven Spielberg, Lucas for George Lucas and Hopper for Dennis Hopper.
11. This series has its basic plot similar to that of the NBC’s cancelled show “Believe”. Both the series are about a girl who has special powers and is lab tested by non government organization to use her as a weapon.
12. Steve gets brutally beaten in the entire series by one or the other. In season 1, Jonathan beats him up. In season 2, Billy does the job and in Season 3, the Russians are trying to get information from him.