Overview
- In a new interview timed to the final-season rollout, Matt and Ross Duffer said the show was originally pitched and sold under the working title Montauk.
- The early concept was set around Camp Hero on Long Island before the setting was moved to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
- The Duffers said ideas from the Montauk stories—government labs, experiments on children, other dimensions, and monsters—remain in the show's creative DNA.
- They explained the title change by noting concerns that Montauk could be difficult for audiences to pronounce.
- The Montauk Project claims, popularized in the 1980s by Preston Nichols and Al Bielek and widely debunked, have influenced multiple screen projects, including Stranger Things; some outlets also note a finale Easter egg that has prompted speculative spin-off chatter.