The Venn diagram of horror fans and Netflix subscribers anxiously awaiting Stranger Things Season 5 is basically just a circle at this point, but it looks like creators Matt and Ross Duffer aren’t waiting around to continue building their career outside of Hawkins and the Upside Down. While it won’t be one of Netflix’s 2024 shows, the streaming giant’s latest collab with the brothers will be a wild doomsday tale that’ll pair them with one of Winona Ryder’s Beetlejuice co-stars.
On top of the Stranger Things spinoff that’s on the way, the Duffers will be producing a brand new series that seemingly isn’t related to any of their other projects, and won’t be directly adapting any other works. (They have the Stephen King Talisman series and the live-action Death Note as well.) The new series will be called The Boroughs, and will center on the following plotline, per Netflix:
In a retirement community, a group of unlikely heroes band together to stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have: time.
For all that I don’t think this show is related to any of their other projects, it wouldn’t be too far outside the ordinary for The Boroughs to be revealed as a stealth Stranger Things sequel featuring grown up versions of all the teens. Speaking of the grown-ups, check out the stellar cast of sci-fi and horror vets that has been rounded up so far.
For the moment, character details for any of the new cast members are slight, so let’s check out each of their memorable genre projects from over the years.
Geena Davis: Having learned the acting ropes on the small screen, Geena Davis became an '80s sci-fi/horror queen thanks to the 1-2 punch of The Fly and Beetlejuice, with Earth Girls are Easy worthy of an honorable mention. Upon becoming a Hollywood starlet, Davis largely left genre projects behind until starring in the Exorcist TV show in 2016. She most recently popped up in Zoë Kravitz's thriller Blink Twice.
Bill Pullman: The first three movies in Bill Pullman's career were Ruthless People, Spaceballs and The Serpent and the Rainbow, exemplifying his multi-genre appeal and talents. He achieved another such streak in the mid-'90s with Independence Day, Lost Highway and Lake Placid, with later projects such as The Grudge, Alien Autopsy, and ID4: Resurgence keeping him a go-to fave.
Alfre Woodard: While mostly known for traditional TV and film projects such as Desperate Housewives, State of Affairs and Memphis Beat, Alfre Woodard has certainly dipped her toes into horror and sci-fi waters with projects such as Star Trek: First Contact, True Blood, and Annabelle, among others.
Alfred Molina: Having portrayed one of comic book cinema's best villains in Spider-Man foe Dr. Octopus, Alfred Molina has enough geek cred to last a lifetime, and doesn't have all that many live-action genre roles for such a prolific actor. But he's lent his voice to a slew of sci-fi/fantasy animated projects such as Gravity Falls, Solar Opposites, Infinity Train, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, Justice League Dark and more.
Denis O'Hare: Even if he never took on another role again, Denis O'Hare would still be a horror TV king/queen for his recurring presence within Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's American Horror Story universe, where he's brought characters like Liz Taylor, Spalding and Holden Vaughn. Not that roles in True Blood or Quarantine hurt.
Clarke Peters: Perhaps best known for working on David Simon's The Wire and Treme, as well as John Wick, Clarke Peters tapped into science fiction early on opposite Sean Connery in 1980's Outland, but it took nearly 30 years to get him into another genre project: the animated Doctor Who: Dreamland miniseries in 2009. More recently, he's embraced more such series such as His Dark Materials, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Foundation, as well as Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods.
While the Duffer brothers will be producing, the creative team behind The Boroughs will be Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, co-creators behind the puppet-driven spinoff The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The pair also co-created the upcoming animated epic The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
At this time, it's unclear when production will be starting up on The Boroughs, but there's more than enough content hitting the upcoming TV schedule to keep everyone busy while waiting for updates.
