By the time that Vecna was finally defeated in the series finale at the start of this year, Stranger Things had gotten a lot bigger and a lot messier than it had been. Not only had the Netflix series spawned a play, video games, and a whole lot of merchandise at Target, but it had become more about a psychic boy from the ’50s who found a way into another reality and summoned a monster. Also, Russians were involved.There’s little to none of that stuff in the latest trailer for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an animated series that takes place between the show’s second and third seasons. In the latest trailer, we see the central quartet of boys, joined by Max and El, having snowball fights and busting each other’s chops. They gain a new friend in the form of punk rocker Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion), who joins the fight against a different set of beasties from the Upside Down.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});The Duffer Brothers have described Tales From ’85 as a throwback to Saturday morning cartoons of their youth, a statement that seems ludicrous when you compare the fluid CGI animations on display in the trailer to the cheap and rigid stuff that ’80s kids watched. But the trailer does promise a more wholesome adventure, one based around the core concept that made Stranger Things such a phenomenon when it launched in 2016.Originally, Stranger Things resonated with viewers because of its sense of childhood nostalgia. Borrowing heavily from the novels of Stephen King and the films of Steven Spielberg, Stranger Things followed a quartet of nerdy kids whose lives change when one disappears and a telekinetic girl called Eleven arrives. The mystery of what happened to Will Byers, the hints about a dangerous realm called the Upside Down, and the supporting cast of teens and adults only served to enhance that concept.But over time, Stranger Things seemed to lose site of its best qualities, bloating into a show about teens (well, young adults playing teens), adults in a Gulag, and so, so much lore. Even though Stranger Things continued to be a topic of conversation in pop culture spaces and pull in massive viewership numbers, the initial excitement had dissipated.Will Tales From ’85 bring that excitement back? It does have to overcome the loss of the original actors, as new voice performers have come in to play beloved characters, including Broadway’s Jeremy Jordan as Steve Harrington. Some may find the angular designs and new voices too great a barrier.But for those who just want to see kids in the ’80s have cool monster adventures, then Tales from ’85 promises to be a small-scale, old-school good time.Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 debuts on Netflix on April 23, 2026.The post Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Trailer Takes a Bloated Franchise Back to Basics appeared first on Den of Geek.