Stranger Things' Horrifying New Monsters Terrorize Hawkins In Netflix's Tales From '85 Trailer

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A new monster in Stranger Things Tales from '85

Published Mar 26, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.

Hawkins is under siege from horrifying new monsters in the official Stranger Things: Tales from '85 trailer.

Only a few months after the Stranger Things series finale, the franchise is expanding with an animated spinoff series set during the winter of 1985, which falls between seasons 2 and 3 in the timeline. The season consists of 10 episodes, each 30 minutes long, that follow Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Max Mayfield, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, and other familiar characters as they discover a new threat from the Upside Down.

Now, Netflix has released the official trailer ahead of the show's April 23 debut on the streaming platform. The footage begins with the party joyfully riding their bikes, getting into a snowball fight, and adjusting to things getting back to normal. The return to normalcy is short-lived, though, as an insect-like monster bursts from the ice and terrifies a new character named Nikki Baxter. Eleven arrives to take on the monster, leading to them defending Hawkins from other sinister Upside Down creatures. Check out the trailer and new images below:

The trailer highlights that Nikki becomes fully aware of the Upside Down and Eleven as she becomes fully embedded into the party. Since Nikki is never mentioned during any of Stranger Things' seasons, this raises the question of what will happen to her in Tales from '85, and if there is a way to maintain continuity without killing the character. Most of the other key characters are all familiar individuals from the original series, although they are voiced by different actors than the ones who played them in live action.

As acknowledged in the trailer, one mystery will be uncovering how the monsters are able to be in Hawkins, as this should not be possible after Eleven closed the gate to the Upside Down in the season 2 finale. Dustin says that something from the Upside Down must have survived, but there may be more to it. The spinoff also needs to explain why these new monsters are never seen in the live-action series, and why they are appearing instead of the usual demogorgons or demodogs.

The focus will be on the younger characters, but Jim Hopper and some of the older characters are confirmed to also appear. The Stranger Things: Tales from '85 cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Ben Plessala as Will, Brett Gipson as Hopper, Odessa A’zion as Nikki, Jeremy Jordan as Steve Harrington, Alysia Reiner as Karen Wheeler, and Alessandra Antonelli as Nancy Wheeler.

Robert Englund, who played Victor Creel in Stranger Things season 4, is voicing a new character named Cosmo. The new faces of Nikki and Cosmo in Stranger Things: Tales from '85 are joined by Janeane Garofalo as Anna Baxter, Lou Diamond Phillips as Daniel Fischer, Valeria Rodriguez as Rosario, and Jack Griffo as Jeff. Eric Robles is the series' showrunner, while Matt and Ross Duffer, Shawn Levy, Hilary Leavitt, and Dan Cohen are producers.