Stranger Things has been one of Netflix's best shows for six years now, but soon it will be coming to an end. The two final chapters of Season 4 will be made available on the streaming service later this summer, but after that there will only be one last run of episodes before the series is concluded.
Of course, fans shouldn't expect the franchise to stop there. Surely creatives and executives at Netflix are working hard right now to figure out a way to keep the train rolling. As of right now, we have no insight into exactly what is being planned... but if it were up to beloved author Stephen King, there would be a whole new show developed around Yuri, the new character played by Nikola Djuricko in Stranger Things 4.
Stephen King let this opinion be known via his popular and regularly updated Twitter account. Posting about Stranger Things, he not only explained that he wants Yuri to get his own spin-off, but he proposes that it takes notes from another one of the best shows currently on television: Barry, starring Bill Hader. See King's post below:
STRANGER THINGS: I love that slimy, slinky Russian guy, Yuri. He deserves his own show. Like BARRY, only Russian.June 4, 2022
For those of you who haven't watched Stranger Things 4 just yet, Nikola Djuricko's Yuri is a Russian pilot living in Alaska who gets involved in the plot when Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) learns that Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is being kept as a prisoner in Siberia and can free him for the right price.
Joyce travels with friend Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) to Alaska with thousands of dollars to meet Yuri, who is set up as a middleman in the exchange... but it turns out that Yuri is a much shadier and duplicitous character than he initially lets on.
Without getting too deep into spoilers, I can certainly see the potential that Stephen King sees in the character. Outwardly, Yuri is a goofy and silly dude with a strange sense of humor – but internally, he's the kind of guy who is always doing calculations in his head to try and determine how he can be the person who comes out on top in any given situation. It would not be hard to craft a lot of stories around him.
Yuri isn't the only character that has earned Stephen King's appreciation about Stranger Things 4. Last week he took to Twitter to post his full thoughts about the latest episodes from the Netflix series, and he offered high praise, calling it "really cool" and that the run is "as good or better" as the previous three (he also is not blind to the references that are made to his books, which have been a key influence on the storytelling from the very beginning):
The new season of STRANGER THINGS is really cool--as good or better than the previous three. There's even a CARRIE riff.Is it the whole season or is it another one of those that's broken into 2 parts? IMHO that's kind of lame.June 1, 2022
As for whether or not we will ever get to see a Yuri-centric spinoff, that situation is presently unclear – but we do know that there are at least some irons in the fire. Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, have said that they have come up with an idea for how to expand the universe of the show, and star Finn Wolfhard is the only one who has figured out their plans.
To watch Stranger Things 4 now, all you need is a Netflix subscription and some patience – the latter being required as fans around the world await the last two episodes, which are set to drop onto the streaming service on July 1. You can keep track of their full schedule by heading over to our 2022 Netflix TV Calendar.
And for all you Stephen King fans, check our our weekly Adapting Stephen King column, which chronologically digs into every adaptation that has been made about one of the author's books.
