The Duffer Brothers’ New Netflix Monsters Are Revealed In The Boroughs Trailer

After terrorizing Hawkins with demogorgons, the Mind Flayer, and Vecna in Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer are bringing new supernatural monsters to Netflix.

This time, the two brothers are executive producers for The Boroughs, a new series coming to Netflix on May 21. The title refers to a retirement community where characters played by Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O'Hare, Clarke Peters, and Bill Pullman reside. The retirees' lives take an unexpected turn when they discover a dark secret in their community involving an alien threat.

Netflix has now released the first trailer for The Boroughs, which begins with Sam (Molina) moving to the titular community against his will. On the outside, it seems like a perfect place lined with shops, golf carts to ride around in, a swimming pool, and smiling faces. Sam's view of his new home is upended when he gets a terrifying glimpse of a tentacle-like alien hand. The majority of the remaining footage shows Sam and his new friends investigating and encountering more of the supernatural. Check out the trailer below:

The other older adults in Sam's group are Renee (Davis), Judy (Woodard), Wally (O'Hare), Art (Peters), and Jack (Pullman), and it is up to the six of them to counter the alien threat. While extraterrestrial life is a significant draw to watch the series, the Duffers previously teased that the characters are the best part of the story: "The monsters are very cool — but it’s the characters who will stay with you." The trailer gives a taste of what each of the characters is like, including Sam's cynicism, Judy's first instinct being to shoot the alien, and Wally making jokes about the group's mortality.

While the Duffers are executive producers, Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews are the creators and showrunners of The Boroughs. They previously created and were the showrunners for Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program, and has an 89% score from critics and 94% score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Instead of fantasy as with Age of Resistance, their new series is grounded more so in supernatural mystery and horror.

When the release date and first-look images were revealed, Addiss and Matthews touched on the devastating reason for Sam's outlook when he moves into the Boroughs: "Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina) is the heart of our story. He recently lost his wife and he’s trying to figure out what to do with the time he has left." Similar to what the Duffers did with Stranger Things, the goal is to bridge the gap between generations and ultimately make a show "that teenagers could watch with their parents and their grandparents that everyone could enjoy."

Other important cast members and characters are Jena Malone as Sam's daughter Claire, who is seen moving him in at the beginning of the trailer, Carlos Miranda as Paz, Seth Numrich as Blaine, Alice Kremelberg as Anneliese, Rafael Casal as Neil, Dee Wallace as Grace, Ed Begley Jr. as Edward, Jane Kaczmarek as Lilly, Eric Edelstein as Hank, Mousa Hussein Kraish as Dr. McGinnis, and Beth Bailey as Kayleigh.

The Boroughs ends a string of new Netflix shows for the Duffers before they move to Paramount. After Stranger Things, they produced Netflix's horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, which came to the streaming platform on March 26, and they are also producers for the animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales from '85 that debuts on April 23.

The Boroughs comes to Netflix on May 21.