5 oddities about the Stranger Things series

Since 2016, when it appeared on Netflix, 'Stranger Things' has taken the world by storm. Brothers Matt and Ross Duffer have created something unique: an investigative drama with elements of the supernatural and horror, laced with references to 1980s pop culture. The series blends genres such as horror, sci-fi, drama and coming-of-age stories into a compelling mix that has been viewed more than 1.2 billion times.

Several thematic and directorial elements are inspired by the work of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Stephen King, Wes Craven and H.P. Lovecraft.

Stephen King, the master of horror who inspired the series, said on July 18, 2016 on the old Twitter - the current X -, "STRANGER THINGS is pure pleasure. A+."

Here are 5 oddities you may not have known.

The original title of the series was 'Montauk'.

Hard to imagine today, but Stranger Things could have had a very different name. The Duffers' original project was called 'Montauk' and was set in the small town of the same name on Long Island. The inspiration? Conspiracy theories and secret experiments by the U.S. government. The two brothers had rethought everything: new location (rural Indiana), new title.

Millie Bobby Brown almost gave up her career

To find the perfect Eleven, the Duffers held no less than 246 auditions with actresses. The fact is that the future lead actress, Millie Bobby Brown, was already on the verge of giving up acting before she finally took her chance for the role. At the age of 10, a casting director told her she was 'too mature' for Hollywood. Her parents persuaded her to do one last taped audition, with the promise that she could then go back to acting with her friends. Of course, that audition was for Stranger Things. The Duffers wanted her right away: she could convey strong emotions even without speaking, exactly what Eleven needed.

Kate Bush made money with a 40-year-old song

'Running Up That Hill' was released in 1985. Thirty-seven years later, thanks to the fourth season of Stranger Things, it has risen to the top of the charts. As a result, Kate Bush raked in $2.3 million (about 2.1 million euros) in streaming royalties in the month following the release of the episodes alone. On her website, she thanked the Duffers, saying she was 'overwhelmed' by the affection she had received. Not bad for a song that is nearly forty years old.

The Demogorgon really does exist (more or less)

The Demogorgon's head, which opens like a flower full of teeth, is not entirely a figment of the songwriters' imagination. The designers took inspiration from real plants and fungi straight out of a horror movie. First, the Rafflesia arnoldii, nicknamed the 'corpse flower'. It's the largest flower in the world (one meter in diameter, weighing more than 10kg), blood red and smells like rotten flesh. Second: Clathrus archeri, an Australian mushroom that rises from the ground like red tentacles covered in black slime, and also gives off a delicious corpse smell. Combine these two elements and you get the Demogorgon.

They filmed the finale... Without knowing the ending!

The fifth season required 237 days of filming, more than 6,700 sets and 630 hours of rushes. A monstrous production. But there is one absurd detail: the Duffers began filming the final episode without even finishing writing. Matt Duffer admits it in the behind-the-scenes documentary, "I've never read episode 8 from start to finish and yet we're already filming. I've never worked like that before. It's crazy to go straight to episode 8.... I don't like it at all."

Under pressure from Netflix and fans' high expectations, they were up against a wall. In the end, they succeeded, and part 1 of season 5 recorded the best opening week ever on Netflix for an English-language series.
 

(MP/©GreenMe.it/Translation and adaptation: The Global Entertainment/Illustration: Unsplash)