Stranger Things’ mix of horror and sci-fi has made it a huge success, as well as its attention to detail with everything 1980s. One of the biggest inspirations of the Duffer Brothers when creating the series was Stephen King – and it shows.
The Duffer Brothers have publicly shared that their influences go from the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Guillermo del Toro, to films like IT.
Is Stranger Things Set In The Same Universe As Stephen King's IT?
A section in the Stranger Things (initially titled Montauk) would have had a time jump, now taking place 10 years later, in the summer of 1990. The kids are young adults and some of them don’t even live in Montauk (now Hawkins) anymore, but the “re-emergence of horror in Montauk will bring them back to their hometown”, where they will have to team up once again. Sounds strangely familiar, don’t you think?
IT behind: Sean Astin’s character, Bob Newby, was introduced in season 2, and shared a story with Will about a clown that traumatized him as a child when he lived in Maine.
That detail alone has sparked a number of theories about Stranger Things being in the same universe as Stephen King’s IT and other novels, with the Duffer Brothers denying it and saying they were just using their own experience watching the Stranger Things has a lot more to offer on its own and built a different story.
