Stranger Things creators may be leaving Netflix

Netflix could soon lose its creative team following one of its biggest hits.

Earlier this week, Variety and other Hollywood publications reported that Matt and Ross Duffer, the brothers who created “Stranger Things,” were in discussions with the brothers who wrote and directed many of the episodes, to sign an exclusive deal with Paramount (now under David Ellison’s Skydance ownership). Then on Friday evening, Puck’s Matthew Veroni posted that he intends to insist that Duffers actually “made their choice.”

The Duffer Brothers’ ambitions appear to have increased with each season of “Stranger Things.” The episodes are longer, the set pieces are more spectacular, and the budget increases accordingly, and season 4 costs are reported to be $30 million per episode.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Duffers is interested in making a big budget tent pole film next. This is an area Netflix struggles with, in part because of its troubling relationship with the theatre business, which it has recently been described as an “outdated concept.”

Netflix has released several films in theaters, but it resists giving those releases an important exclusive window before launching them on stream.

This was clearly a sticking point for “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig. So the first film of Netflix’s “Narnia” movie will play exclusively on IMAX screens for two weeks (or more) before going streaming on Christmas Day in 2026.

The absence of siblings is not immediately noticeable on Netflix. Netflix will release the final season of “Stranger Things” in three parts later this year, with the Duffers set for two new shows in 2026.