Stranger Things owes a lot to ’80s horror. There’s the Stephen King font used by the titles, the heavy use of synths on the score, and a scary monster who represents the sins of generations past. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer have paid that debt in several ways, including by casting Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger himself, as Victor Creel, father of the boy who would become Vecna.
With the animated series Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, the Duffers are paying back that debt twice by bringing Englund back as a new character. According to a release in EW, Englund will play “Cosmo Russo … editor-in-chief of The Weekly Watcher, a Hawkins tabloid magazine that’s notorious for its sensationalized, often exaggerated, and false accounts of local scandals, mysteries, and supernatural occurrences.”
In a way, England’s recasting falls in line with the way that Tales From ’85 is approaching all of its characters. Although the show features recognizable names like Mike Wheeler, Chief Hopper, and Eleven, the faces have changed. Instead of Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour, and Millie Bobby Brown, it’s Luca Diaz, Jeremy Jordan, and Brooklyn Davey Norstedt providing voices. Rounding out the cast is Marty Supreme standout Odessa A’zion as cool kid Nikki Baxter, comedian Janeane Garofalo as her mother Anna, and The First Power star Lou Diamond Phillips as new character Daniel Fischer.
However, bringing back an actor from the main series but putting him in a new role seems to be part of Tales From ’85‘s plan to separate itself from the mainline Stranger Things mythology. Set between seasons 2 and 3 of the main series, Tales From ’85 certainly has stuff about the Upside Down and features recognizable monsters like the Demo-Dog. But the show’s trailers have emphasized a light-hearted, carefree tone, bringing the series back to the kid adventures that made it such a massive hit.
That reset feels even more important now, after the much-hyped final episode of the main series. While the feature-length fifth season did certainly generate much discussion, enough to justify Netflix‘s decision to put the last episode in theaters, the reception has been mixed, to say the least. While some thrilled to the epic stakes the series developed, others felt like Stranger Things lost the things that made it special.
Tales From ’85 is primed to give those fans what they want, as demonstrated by Englund’s shifty new character. Per Netflix: “Cosmo is fully aware of his reputation as an opportunist, but he simply doesn’t care. His focus is on the people who eagerly line up at the supermarket, drawn in by his bombastic headlines, compelling them to pick up a copy. Despite his public sensationalism, he privately believes that Hawkins is genuinely steeped in strange happenings.”
Strange happenings and supermarket tabloids? A goofy opportunist played by a horror legend? That sounds like pure, nostalgic fun, and an ’80s horror icon is the perfect person to make it happen.
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 streams on Netflix on April 23, 2026.
