Netflix announces ‘Stranger Things’ animated series, so we can check that off our list of inevitabilities

It was never any secret that the Stranger Things mythos wasn’t going to end with the mainline show’s fifth season, which hasn’t even begun its principal photography at the time of writing. Nevertheless, any official confirmation on more Stranger Things is like Christmas for fans of Netflix’s flagship sci-fi series, and the Duffer Brothers were happy to oblige with an announcement for an animated spinoff series set in the Stranger Things universe.

Unsurprisingly, the series will be a Netflix exclusive, and will be developed by executive producer Eric Robles (Fanboy & Chum Cum) and Flying Bark Productions (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). The Duffer Brothers, who created Stranger Things, will also executive produce alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen.

Per Deadline, the plot is not yet known, but according to the Duffers, the new series will seek to capture the ethos of Saturday morning cartoons, which explains the involvement of the aforementioned parties all too well. And with the duo singing nothing but praise for the artwork and scripts the show will be working with, it sounds like we’re in for the nostalgia-fest we didn’t know we needed.

Just as well, fans of Stranger Things will probably be in desperate need of a light-hearted palate-cleanser following the end of the mainline series with season 5; not only will they have to give at least a soft goodbye to the Hawkins gang, but there’s a good-to-fair chance that a beloved character or two won’t be making it out alive, which will no doubt drive up heart medication sales exponentially.