Less than a year after Stranger Things ended on New Year’s Eve, the people who made it have scattered to other studios and Netflix’s chief content executive has now explained why.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ted Sarandos addressed the departures of creators Matt and Ross Duffer, who moved to Paramount, and executive producer and director Shawn Levy, who signed with Disney’s 20th Television. Sarandos said the brothers “did not want to make more TV shows right now” after a decade with the company and wanted to make large theatrical films instead.
He described encouraging them to go, saying he did not want them to reach 60 wishing they had tried it two decades earlier. He added that he expects them to have great success.
The Duffers have given a matching account. Their four-year exclusive deal with Paramount was announced in August 2025 and took effect after their Netflix contract expired this April. “The biggest draw to us was just to be able to do something theatrical,” Matt Duffer told Variety last year, noting that Netflix does not offer that.
Related: Stranger Things Is About to Break a Netflix Rule
For fans, the more important part of the interview concerned what stays. Sarandos pointed out that Netflix still owns Stranger Things and said the universe will remain part of the company’s success permanently, leaving room for more stories. The Duffers have said they will stay involved in the franchise after their move. An animated series, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, and a live-action spinoff have both been part of those plans.
Levy’s exit went in a different direction. He helped bring the Duffers’ script to Netflix through his company 21 Laps and directed episodes in all five seasons. He is now finishing Star Wars: Starfighter, the Ryan Gosling film due May 28, 2027, and Sarandos suggested that will not be his last trip to that galaxy. “Shawn is going to be making Star Wars movies for a while,” he said. Lucasfilm has not announced any further Levy films, so the remark stands as Sarandos’ expectation, not a confirmed slate.
Sarandos said the relationship with Levy continues as well and that the two sides expect to keep working together. Netflix still has projects in development with him, including a hockey drama titled Sticks.
Stranger Things premiered in 2016 and became one of the defining series of the streaming era, turning its young cast into stars and its 1980s setting into a shared reference point across generations. All five seasons remain on Netflix. Its creators are working elsewhere now, and the company that owns the series has signaled that more stories set in that world remain possible.
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