Stranger Things can be interpretated as many kinds of Spiritual Successors to give it its own page.
- All things considered, Eleven's storyline is probably the closest we're ever going to come to a live-action adaptation of Elfen Lied (minus the whole interdimensional monsters thing), with her relationship with Dr. Brenner being very similar to that between Dr. Kakuzawa and Nana, right down to calling Brenner "Papa". Season 4 also gives Brenner a similar redemption arc to Kakuzawa.
- Powers aside, Eleven's background also shares a number of similarities with X-23, the main difference being their power sets (telepathy and telekinesis, rather than Wolverine Claws and a Healing Factor). Millie Bobby Brown even auditioned for the role of Laura in Logan shortly before getting this one instead.
- Powers considered, Eleven is extremely similar to Jean Grey with even her troubled father-daughter relationship with Dr. Brenner mirroring Jean and Professor X. In fact a few people of have pointed out Eleven may have of been a big Shout-Out to Jean from the getgo, as in episode 1 before the boys meet El, Will says he'll be getting Dustin's X-Men #134 a issue from The Dark Phoenix Saga which is focused on Jean. In said issue Jean psychically holds Mastermind againist a wall, just like Eleven does to the Demogorgon
◊ and Henry. - A Town with a Dark Secret is connected to a Dark World version of itself that's filled with fog and inhabited by monsters. People can become trapped in this world, and a well-meaning police officer, a parent looking for their child who begins to doubt their own sanity, and a mysterious little girl with psychic powers who inadvertently caused a catastrophe involving the dark world are all key players here. The Conspiracy is looking for the girl in order to further their own goals. Did we just describe Silent Hill, or Stranger Things?
- Speaking of horror video games, the show has been noted by many to be very◊ similar to Resident Evil right down to the hero cops, mad scientists, govermeant conspiracies, bio-augmentation and monster outbreaks going on in a small town. The fact that the actual TV adaptation of RE came out around the same time and according to some had less in common with the games than Stranger Things did was a big source of irony for fans.
- A Government Conspiracy rating high on the Scale of Scientific Sins is looking for a Psychic Child who's been subjected to brutal experiments all her life and is key in stopping a potentially world-ending disaster caused by said conspiracy, who continue to study the disaster long after the fact. Sounds like something out of the SCP Foundation. The working title for the series was even Montauk!note
- Also, the Demogorgon is basically a less (actively) malicious version of SCP-106.
- Much of the entire plot above is Beyond: Two Souls, the biggest difference is that the protagonist in that is all grown up.
- You could also see it as a license to Super 8. People disappear in a small Midwest town. A group of nerdy kids gets involved in something strange, only to find out there's a military conspiracy in the middle of all of it (that does not hesitate to kill to get their way) and get way over their heads, only getting through thanks to their ingenuity and the help of several understanding adults. A girl that is more or less an outcast joins the group, and Puppy Love develops between her and The Leader of the main characters, but this causes strife within the group as one of them dislikes said closeness. And one of the driving issues is the disappearance of one of the children.
- The series came about because the studio behind the new adaptation of IT passed on the Duffer Brothers' treatment. Similarities between IT and Stranger Things include an American small town setting, a young boy getting kidnapped by a man-eating alien monster, and a gang of outcast children banding together to try and stop that monster. This also doubles as a strong case of Hilarious in Hindsight; given that the 2017 IT film changes the time period to the 1980s, and they just outright lifted one of Stranger Thing's actors (Finn Wolfhard) to play yet another middle-school-aged kid confronting a predatory monster.
- It can also be one for Let the Right One In. Both are horror stories set in a 1980s small town, focus on a romance between a bullied boy and a girl with supernatural abilities, and said boy's bully is a criminally insane sociopath that tries to kill him for a small offense, but is saved by the supernatural girl. However, here, the bully only got off with a broken arm instead of getting ripped to pieces. Added to this, Eli’s cover story that the boys briefly use is that she is from Sweden, the original setting of Let the Right One In, and her nickname differs from that of the book’s female vampire by one letter and syllable. (El vs. Eli, pronounced as "Ellie".)
- Season 3 could very well be one for Slither, since it involves an otherworldly entity coming to a small, rural town to brainwash a number of citizens into a zombie hivemind, some of whom develop a ravenous hunger, while others scout the town for more people to forcefully convert. Not to mention said entity then weaponizes Body Horror in order to create a new form for itself out of the flesh of its victims. If the resemblance isn't strong enough already, there's even a scene where Eleven has to yank a distinctly slug-like piece of the Mind Flayer out of her leg in order to keep herself from turning into a Flayed.
- Season 3 also has many similarities to The Thing (1982), a movie whose poster is featured prominently in Mike's basement and is even name dropped by the characters in episode 7. Both feature an Alien Invasion by an Assimilator who takes control of its victim's minds and bodies on the cellular level. Victims behave normally until they are exposed, threatened, or see a chance to create another host. And both The Thing and the Mind Flayer's avatar's final form is a Body Horror-incarnate Body of Bodies with Combat Tentacles, More Teeththanthe Osmond Family, and vaguely spider-like features that the heroes fight with fire and explosives.
- Key parts of Season 3 involve a replica of a unique creature with extra tentacles the original isn't shown to have born from earth and decay around the time of a fireworks festival, the creature seeking out an individual with psychic powers to add to itself among other victims while proving very difficult to even slow down, the antagonist who helped create the replica redeeming themselves by getting in the way of the replica at the last moment due to being reminded of love, and the replica creature's death instigated in part by cutting off its power source. Now, did that just describe Stranger Things Season 3, or Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker?
- A bunch of kids (particularly, one with psychic abilities) fighting an otherworldly Eldritch Abomination in a fictional American town. Sounds a lot like EarthBound (1994).
- A badass and a divorced mother of two boys foil Soviet plots and fall in love. Sounds like Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
- To Code Lyoko, but set in the 80s before the internet is invented. The protagonists consist of a girl with mysterious powers and Dark and Troubled Past tied to an organization and another reality (Aelita/Eleven), the boy who likes her and is their group's Non-Action Guy leader (Jérémie/Mike), a Deadpan Snarker Stalker with a Crush who doubles as their Big Guy (Ulric/Lucas), his happy-go-lucky partner in crime (Odd/Dustin), and the Action Girl Tomboy who is the Big Guy's love interest (Yumi/Max). Both shows even had their respective antagonists residing in an alternate reality, possessing rats and humans as proxy bodies to attack the protagonists with.
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