It’s official: Stranger Things is getting an animated adaptation. Streaming giant Netflix is bringing Stranger Things: Tales from ‘85, an animated series set between seasons 2 and 3, to its platform on April 23rd, 2026.
Netflix also recently announced that it was entering a strategic partnership with MAPPA, the animation studio behind major titles like Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Yuri on Ice. The companies are already working together on multiple new projects.
With the streaming platform currently working on numerous animated shows, it’s easy to think about which of their IPs could fit the medium – and which ones deserve it the most. Here are some of our top picks.
9. Heartstopper
It’s not hard to imagine Heartstopper as an animated series, considering that it started out as a successful webcomic. An animated adaptation of the series that brings author Alice Oseman’s original art style to the screen could be a cute, cozy delight.
Of course, Nick and Charlie’s story is already almost over – the series will conclude with the Heartstopper Forever movie at some point in 2026 – but an animated series could be the perfect opportunity to shine the spotlight on some of their equally interesting friends. Plus, other coming-of-age romantic animated series have already found major success over the past few years, like Sasaki and Miyano or Twilight Out of Focus. Heartstopper could easily follow suit.
8. Glamorous
In case you were wondering what Kim Cattrall was up to during And Just Like That, she was most likely filming Glamorous, a sweet sitcom about the trials and tribulations of running a make-up company.
Jordon Nardino’s comedy drama is one of many shows on Netflix’s long list of cancellations. It’s a real shame, too – Glamorous’ blend of gentle comedy and workplace drama had a unique voice to it. It deserved to have more time to let that shine than just one season.
An animated continuation could fit Glamorous particularly well if it followed in the footsteps of other workplace comedies like Aggretsuko or Bob’s Burgers. Especially if it follows up on that huge cliffhanger we were all left hanging on.
7. The Umbrella Academy
The Umbrella Academy didn’t just drop out of nowhere. It actually started out as a series created by Gabriel Bá and Gerard Way. Yes, Gerard Way, as in My Chemical Romance.
Although the surrealist sci-fi’s leap to the screen worked well (and was a visual treat, no less), it’s hard not to imagine what The Umbrella Academy might’ve looked like if it stuck to the comics’ original looks. If the animation’s style stayed sympathetic to the source material, then The Umbrella Academy would be a worthy entry to the long lineage of superhero cartoons that came before it.
6. Sense8
The Wachowski Sisters’ mind-bending sci-fi series Sense8 feels like a shoo-in for an animated adaptation. After all, Lily and Lana Wachowski have each already cut their teeth in the world of animation with The Animatrix, which was animated by several industry heavyweights like Madhouse and Studio 4°C.
Seeing the duo reunite with either of these studios to produce another animated series would be fantastic, and Sense8 seems like the ideal reason to do so. During its two-season run throughout the late 2010’s, Sense8 built up a large cult following and received high critical praise. The appetite and audience are clearly there – all we need is for Netflix to do something about it!
5. Tales of the City
Tales of the City didn’t start out as a Netflix show. It actually first aired in 1993, following a series of novels that started being published in the 1970’s. But, 28 Barbary Lane eventually found a home on the streaming platform in 2019 in the form of a spin-off miniseries following new stories set in the same universe.
One of the stand-out episodes of Netflix’s Tales of the City is Episode 8, or “Days of Small Surrenders”: an almost standalone story following Anna Madrigal’s life as a young woman in the 1960’s. The episode is easily one of the miniseries’ highlights, courtesy of its tight writing, visuals, and actress Jen Richards’ lead performance.
A spin-off series following Anna through more of her youth would be a home run – and, since Tales of the City was recently adapted into a graphic novel anyway, animating it just feels right.
4. First Kill
In case you missed it, First Kill is a teen vampire drama that launched in 2022. The supernatural sapphic romance was massively popular on release, raking in around 100 million streaming hours during its first few weeks, according to reports shared by What’s On Netflix. Despite its popularity, the show was cancelled less than a month after its release.
Sadly, First Kill’s early cancellation means Calliope and Juliette’s love story wasn’t completed, and fans were left with an appetite (or a thirst, perhaps?) for more. It would be great to see First Kill rebooted in any form, but the show’s sharp visuals and fun character design would lend itself particularly well to the animated format.
3. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Sabrina Spellman has seen a lot of different iterations over the years, ranging from the original Archie comics to teen sitcoms and cartoons. In more recent years, Netflix brought her back to our screens with a more morbid take on the franchise in the form of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s eerie coming-of-age horror is ripe for an animated adaptation. The series was based on comics to begin with, meaning we have an art style and some core storyboarding locked in already.
And, when the TV show was cancelled, Sabrina’s story was set to continue with a follow-up comic called The Occult World of Sabrina. Unfortunately, though, that book seems to be in its own kind of purgatory, as shared by Comicbook Club, and hasn’t been released yet.
The Occult World of Sabrina: The Animated Series, anyone? It seems like a sympathetic way of picking up where the story left off, while harking back to the original source material.
2. GLOW
GLOW had a chokehold on audiences throughout its run in the late 2010’s. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling from being taken off air after three seasons, despite the sports drama initially being renewed for a full four seasons. Fans were understandably distraught at the show’s premature ending – especially given that season four was set to be its last, and filming had already begun.
Financial and production issues brought about by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic put strain on the filming of GLOW season four. Specifically, it impacted the final season’s release date. According to Deadline, the earliest that the show’s final season would be released would be sometime in 2022, which Netflix felt was too large a gap between it and the previous season to capture the audience’s attention.
Considering the larger gaps between each season of Stranger Things – around three years between seasons three and four, and three-and-a-half years between seasons four and five – that seems a little rich. With GLOW’s final season already being so close to completion, it seems like the ideal show to pick up for an animated adaptation.
Sports animation has really had its moment over the past few years, with some big releases like SK8 The Infinity and Blue Lock having their moment in the spotlight, so the timing even feels right. Plus, there are already multiple series of spin-off comic books that could be used as a reference point.
1. The Get Down
Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Get Down is one of Netflix’s most visually compelling productions of the 2010s, blending sleek live-action cinematics with animated cutaways. The musical drama’s deft use of lighting, bright colorways, and visionary cinematographic choices make it a solid choice for an animated adaptation.
As well as being one of Netflix’s more impressive productions, it was also one of the most expensive shows they had made at the time. Per Deadline, the 12-episode series cost roughly $120 million to produce. Although that’s obviously an eyewatering figure, compared to Stranger Things’ Season 5 budget of roughly $480 million, it’s a relative drop in the ocean.
The series was eventually cancelled after one season, following a series of production issues. This sudden ending means a lot of plotlines weren’t wrapped up as well as they could’ve been. One of the most notable examples was the storyline following Dizzee and Thor, two artists on the run together. The Get Down’s animated sequences are actually meant to be comics drawn by Dizzee sent to his other half, so it would make perfect sense to pick up on this thread with an animated spin-off.