The Duffer Brothers, creators of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, are very busy these days. Next month, they’ll be opening the writers room for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, and they’ve just started a production company called Upside Down Pictures that will be producing a Stranger Things spin-off, a series based on the Stephen King and Peter Straub novel The Talisman, a live-action Death Note series, an original series from creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance), and a new stage play set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things, produced by Sonia Friedman, Stephen Daldry, and Netflix. In between plotting all of these things, they’re also daydreaming about seeing a pan & scan version of Stranger Things… which could, they imagine, be added to the Netflix streaming service under the title Stranger Things VHS.
During an interview with Collider, the Duffer Brothers were asked if they would consider a 4K Blu-ray release of the entire run of Stranger Things once it’s wrapped up. They confirmed that’s something they would be interested in, but they’re also interested in a version of the show that would be designed to look like it was being watched on VHS. Fitting, since the show is set in the 1980s.
Ross Duffer said,
Skip the VCR, hit it a couple of times, put it on Netflix. At least the nerd in me loves it, the nostalgic factor. We had our colorist do the opening scene of Season 1 pan and scan for us.”
That’s when Matt Duffer brought up the idea of possibly calling this version Stranger Things VHS. Assuring fans that it wouldn’t replace the hi-def version of the show that’s already on Netflix, he said,
[I]t wouldn’t be embedded, it’d be its own separate thing. Like Stranger Things VHS, whatever it is. I’m excited about it, we’ll see if it happens.”
As Collider reminds, “Pan and scan is the method used to convert films — or in this case, series — from the larger theatrical aspect ratio to one more suitable for home viewing on smaller televisions prior to the advent of the widescreen format.”
If Stranger Things VHS were to be added to Netflix, I’m sure that version of the show would quickly become the preferred way of watching it for a certain segment of the fandom. Would you watch a VHS-style version of Stranger Things? Let us know by leaving a comment below.