If the wait for more Stranger Things has felt endless, Netflix just made April 23 feel like a very important date to circle on the calendar. The streamer is moving forward with Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an animated spinoff that showrunner Eric Robles has already promised will “feel like a lost season,” and the newly released character posters are doing a lot to back that claim up.
The poster drop introduces several familiar faces reimagined in animated form, but the one generating the most buzz is for Nikki Baxter, a completely original character voiced by Odessa A’zion. She’s not from the existing lore, and that’s precisely the point. Robles described Nikki to Netflix’s Tudum as “the audience’s eyes,” someone who stumbles into the world of Hawkins with zero preparation and even less desire to be involved. She has her own life, her own baggage, and her own reasons for wanting to keep her head down. The kids, naturally, make that impossible. “There’s no way that she could just walk away [from what she’s seen] and pretend like it never happened,” Robles said, which suggests Nikki is going to be pulled into the chaos whether she’s ready or not.
It’s a smart narrative device. By grounding the story in the perspective of someone who doesn’t already know about the Upside Down, the show creates space for genuine discovery and dread rather than relying solely on the nostalgia of watching Eleven and the gang reunite. Nikki feels like a character designed to earn her place in the Stranger Things universe rather than coast on familiarity.
The rest of the voice cast reads like a carefully assembled ensemble of rising talent and proven names. Brooklyn Davey Norstedt voices Eleven, with 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, and Jeremy Jordan stepping into Steve’s shoes. Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips also join the cast in roles yet to be fully revealed, which adds an intriguing layer of mystery to the supporting lineup.
Story-wise, the series is set in the winter of 1985, a moment that feels almost deceptively peaceful for Hawkins. Snow is falling, the Upside Down feels like a distant nightmare, and the gang has reclaimed the ordinary pleasures of being a teenager: Dungeons & Dragons, snowball fights, and days that don’t involve running for their lives. It won’t last, of course. Something has stirred beneath the ice, and whether it traces back to the Upside Down, Hawkins Lab, or something entirely new remains the central mystery the show is building toward.
With the April 23 premiere closing in, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is shaping up to be more than a stopgap between live-action seasons. It looks like a genuine expansion of a world fans aren’t ready to leave behind.
