Why Stephen King Doesn’t Agree With Those Stranger Things Comparisons

Netflix’s “Stranger Things” started out big and only got bigger by the season — quite literally, considering the show’s series finale was screened in select theaters. Horror luminary Stephen King fits this description as well, with high-profile adaptations of his work like the Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) origin story “IT: Welcome to Derry” arriving at regular intervals. 

Many of King’s best-known stories — most famously “It” –  take place in small towns and feature young protagonists in peril, making thematic comparison between his and the Duffer Brothers’ work easy to draw. King himself, however, has suggested the connection isn’t as strong as some fans claim. He expressed this view while answering reader questions for The Guardian. 

“I don’t see it as a Stephen King story as much as some other people do,” King said of the Netflix series. “I think the Duffer Brothers give me more credit than I deserve. Like a lot of talented people, they grew up with my material. When they were young and malleable, they read a lot of Stephen King and said: ‘We wanna do something like that.’ But they’re very talented guys and the story they have developed has a lot more to it than Stephen King. It’s got a lot of Duffer Brothers in it. It’s good. I’ve seen all the episodes. I like it a lot.”  

Stephen King has been gracefully adamant that while the Duffer Brothers might have read his books, they’re ultimately doing their own thing. If you ask Matt and Ross Duffer, however, you may get a very different answer. In a Vanity Fair interview, the brothers revealed that elements of “Stranger Things,” including the introduction of the show’s big bad Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in Season 4, was heavily inspired by King’s work – particularly Pennywise the Dancing Clown. 

“It was a big influence on the show from the start,” Matt said. “‘It’ has always been in there — the idea of kids in a small town battling a supernatural entity from another dimension. The biggest takeaway from ‘It’ for me is: character first, or nothing else that happens is going to matter. When Pennywise emerges, you’re not going to be as frightened as you are for these kids. The reason you’re shaking is because you see yourself in those kids. It felt like I was there. [King] convinced me I was there, and then he brought this clown into it.”

That appreciation made it especially notable when news broke in 2021 that the “Stranger Things” creators would adapt King and Peter Straub’s “The Talisman” for Netflix. Since then, the Duffers’ move from Netflix to Paramount resulted in the project being shelved. Even so, it wouldn’t be surprising if another King adaptation eventually appears on their horizon.