Netflix’s smash sensation,Stranger Things, finished airing its fourth season and the Duffer brothers—after creating an emotional roller coaster for fans of the beloved series and ending the season on a bittersweet note in more ways than one—have long since announced their plans to expand on the world of Hawkins, Indiana and the Upside Down it contains. Plays, a spinoff series, and more are all on their way to satiate audiences hungry for more creepy, telekinetic goodness.
Shawn Levy, the series’ executive producer who’s directed more than his share of episodes (including the fourth season episode that brought Kate Bush back in a big way, “Dear Billy”) told Variety that he and Ryan Reynolds have been trying to figure out a way to bring Marvel’s merc with a mouth, Deadpool, intoStranger Things.
Related:Finn Wolfhard Correctly Guessed The Idea For The Top Secret Stranger Things Spinoff
Interviewed on the red carpet for the 2022 Emmy awards, Levy mentioned that he’d beenhanging out with Kevin Feige a lot more lately(probably to discuss the early planning stages of bringing Deadpool into the MCU). Said Levy, “Yes, we are building out the STCU, and now that I’m spending time with Kevin Feige, I’m learning a lot about how to manage a universe,” he said. “So I’m taking those skills and applying them to the STCU.”
Despite thenext thing on his plate beingDeadpool 3, the third helping of the hilarious and mega-popularX-Menspin off, Levy has been thinking about the other franchise he’s shepherded from the beginning. As happens with creatives, they’re going to create. He and Ryan Reynolds have been having their own sidebar on how to bring the loudmouth mercenary into theStranger Thingsworld: “Funnily enough, Ryan and I were trying to figure out how in the world could we do a Deadpool-Stranger Thingscrossover. We haven’t cracked it yet, but it’s on the table.”
The Duffer brothers, the creators of the franchise, have themselves been talking about how to expand the franchise, with desires for a stage play and a spinoff series that Finn Wolfhard correctly guessed (if it’s about the other numbers from Hawkins labs going on their own adventures as the STCU’s version ofThe X-Men,where aDeadpoolcrossovercould conceivably work, nobody involved is currently saying). It’s odd to refer to it as theStranger ThingsCinematic Universe considering it’s only ever existed as streaming television and the creators’ own desire is a stage play—something even further from a movie—but there it is.
