#stranger things speculation

These ones below are most likely coincidences:

Balloons above his head.

You've been absolutely cooking with your theories as always; I was particularly excited to read how Vecna would've kidnapped Mike- in fact that was the one theory that managed to finally convince my sister to jump onto the CG bus! (after over a month of me sounding like a lunatic in her eyes lmao) 😮‍💨😂

She wanted me to ask you how the whole Kali/Dr. Kay storyline would pan out from a Rightsideupgate perspective- especially since Kali's whole thing is crafting illusions (in fact, I don't remember it was ever explained why her powers are different from the other numbers??), so its highly likely it plays a part in the fakeout timeline of S5? I'm sure you plan on addressing that at some point but we just wanted to know 💗

Hi againnn! :D

Omg that's crazy, say hi to your sister for me askjfhgak

Aaand I'm not sure yet!! I like to rewatch scenes, and use the patterns in them to form evidence of the "real" story. I haven't rewatched El's storyline yet, so I don't have much evidence!

...I have some ideas, though :P

I'm presuming that all the biggest plot points are things that happened in the 8 months after Season 4. Here's a timeline of stuff that in my opinion is basically confirmed.

March 29th – El and Hopper laid low as soon as they both got back into Hawkins (could've stayed in the police station, according to pre-Season 5 leaks). But they kept in contact with the Party.

June 13th – El was spotted by the military after helping someone who was in danger. That's when she and Hopper had to hide somewhere new, and largely out-of-contact from the Party.

November 6th – The Party reunited, so El was there.

So, anywhere from June to November (5 months max), El and Hopper are unaccounted for. They could've been doing anything.

Considering their current storyline, they were most likely doing missions as a duo. They probably did actually break into the Lab, and they probably did find Kali! But not necessarily both at once.

My current guess (again, no evidence!) is that while El and Hopper were in hiding for the second time, they ran into Kali together. The three of them may have even teamed up on a mission relating to the Lab. That's what Kali was doing in Season 2, after all. Revenge missions against the Lab.

Based on previous storylines, the three of them might try to expose what the Lab has done and prevent the experiments from ever happening again. No death pact required!

This follows story threads that were left in Season 2 and Season 4, so it seems pretty plausible.

(And if this is true, then it's no wonder Vecna hid this in the "fake" story. He had to make it seem like there was no hope for El, in order to make her fake death make sense. Because then, Mike would be wracked with even more survivor's guilt – which Vecna knows is the perfect way to keep him trapped, as he has been in the past. Plus, if El was still in the picture, Mike would inevitably end up confronting his feelings for Will, and he would break out of the illusion.)

Most likely, finding their sister again made both Kali and El finally feel understood, like in Season 2. But El's "choice" would make even less sense if Vecna kept this in, so instead, he made it so that Kali "corrupted" El's mind.

Kali could play a crucial role later on! Since Will is listed as an illusionist here, and is Vecna's "builder"... ->

-> it's plausible he's the one generating Mike's illusion world. As a fellow illusionist, Kali might be able to offer some crucial information about illusions, how they are created, and how to break them!

OH!

Since Max would most likely still be in her coma, Kali could be the one who reveals that you don't need music to break out of an illusion, just something that reminds you of the real world, brings you hope, etc.!!! She's an illusionist, she would know. Just in time for the Party to reunite on November 6th, and for someone to tell Mike, like in my theory about his kidnapping!

And on a darker note, if Vecna loses control of Will, he could try to control Kali and use her as a backup illusionist now that she's in range. Uh-oh...

Thanks for the ask :D

I don't know what will change once I rewatch El's storyline, but hopefully my speculation was interesting at least!!

It practically takes up half of the shot.

A story about a potential Netflix plant, misinformation on a Family Guy fanon Wikipedia page, and what this all means for "Stranger Things: Tales of '85" and conformitygate.

This is my second attempt at breaking this story, it's very complex and layered and while I had the right hunch the first time, I did not check my sources carefully enough. I'm not claiming Stranger Things: Tales of '85 is fake, just that there are many inconsistencies surrounding it. Thanks to @disastertourwaterdeepedition, @mel01837, @livinglikelarries, @nuffit, @how-obvious and @arubikhandy0707 from the conformitygate discord server for fact checking and helping me gather the proper information!

Edit: Clarification on the source of the Twitter picture

Table of Contents:

A. Stranger Reports

A1. The Reddit Post

A2. The Twitter Post

B. ACTUAL OFFICIAL INFORMATION (thanks to @disastertourwaterdeepedition )

C. Collider: Trust me bro (thanks to @how-obvious )

D. The Shenanigans of a potential anti-byler Netflix plant (thanks to @nuffit and @arubikhandy0707 )

E. Nikki Baxter's mysterious appearance on Family Guy fanon wikipedia (thanks to @livinglikelarries and @how-obvious )

F. Summary and Concluding remarks

A. Stranger Reports

This deep dive starts with the discovery that the articles with the exact same information started popping up, mostly on the 28th of January (2026), one of the dates on my predicted promotional timeline for Stranger Things content.

They all detail how a new character, Nikki Baxter, in the upcoming "Stranger Things: Tales of 85", was sparking controversy, because she would significantly alter the Stranger Things story and time line [paraphrased].

Screen Rant (Jan 26, 2026):

Dexerto (Jan 28, 2026):

International Business Times UK (Jan 28, 2026):

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/who-nikki-baxter-tales-85-tinker-netflix-using-rewrite-stranger-things-why-fans-are-1774471

Collider (Jan 28, 2026)

The odd thing was, most of these reports either didn't list their sources at all, or were referring to a Reddit post and/or a Twitter post. Both of those were posted in the time span of one day and are very interesting for different reasons, to say the least.

A1. The Reddit Post

It was posted on Jan 24, 2026. You can fact check this by clicking the link below:

Overall, the post is critical and the comments echo the same sentiment. The source of this post most likely is the synopsis of the Stranger Things: Tales from '85 Chapter Book, listed by Penguin Random House (publisher).

On there, it says the story is for ages 6 to 9. This is pretty weird, as the story officially takes place between S2 and S3 and would require context from the original Stranger Things show, but that one has always been for at least 13+.

A2. The Twitter post

This post haunts me. It was also posted on Jan 24 (2026) on Twitter. This is the ONLY post used by mainstream media that has a supposed picture of Nikki Baxter. Unlike the Reddit Post and the Chapter Book, who refer to the new character as just "Nikki", this Twitter Post uses the character's full name, and this is where all the recent articles are getting it from.

As we can see, the picture is pretty bad quality-wise. It seems like it is a photo taken sneakily with a (phone) camera from another screen. Edit: it was altered to look that way. According to this tweet, it shows a character, Nikki Baxter, wrapped in vines. It raises four questions:

Where does the name Nikki Baxter come from?

Why do people call her "a tinker"?

Why does "BradleysBigBuy" have this picture?

Why do people trust "BradleysBigBuy" as a credible source?

The first two questions will be answered in "Collider: trust me bro" and the last two questions will be answered in "The shenanigans of a potential anti-byler Netflix plant". Before we get into that, we need to know what information is 100% trustworthy.

B. ACTUAL OFFICIAL INFORMATION

Besides the Chapter Book for Stranger Things: Tales of '85, we have two other pieces of official information about the animation.

The official announcement trailer on the official Netflix YouTube Channel, Nov 6 (2025):

This is the ONLY teaser trailer existing of this animation. @disastertourwaterdeepedition works in a related industry and has concluded, using their expertise in the field, that this trailer looks more like a display of concept art than an actual finished product. All the other trailers on YouTube are fan made, probably with AI (ew). Note: this announcement trailer does NOT include Nikki Baxter.

The IMBD page with information on the director, writers, voice cast, producers, sound department, visual effects team, animation department and music composer:

Note: Only Episode 1, of unknown length, has been confirmed. The character list does NOT include Nikki Baxter. There is NO voice actor that is assigned to voice Nikki Baxter.

Edit: the original picture of Nikki Baxter has been found by @digitalembersphinx. It was posted on Twitter on Nov 6 (2026), at the same time the announcement trailer was released. My point still stands: why did mainstream news articles collectively source @BradleysBigBuy 's shitty edit and why is @Updates_SThings the only source of information on this picture?

C. Collider: trust me bro

I traced back the first time Nikki Baxter was described by full name and as "a tinker" to Collider, through the Wikipedia page for Stranger Things: Tales from '85:

This is an article from Jun 11 (2025). Apparently, a sneak peak was shown at the Annecy Animation Festival in France, accessible to invited guests and the press, but not for the general public. And, the author of this article took some... rough notes.

This is where the name Nikki Baxter and her being called "a tinker" come from. In the notes it's also mentioned that the Duffer brothers keep their cards close to the chest. Maybe too close, considering Nikki Baxter has still not been shown in the announcement trailer half a year later, Nov 6 (2025). Not to say that this is not a trustworthy source, but it is surprising this is where this crucial information stems from: word of mouth. Where is Nikki Baxter if she was shown at Annecy Animation Festival? Why did we only get a couple of minutes of concept art in the announcement trailer, when it's half a year later since the Jun 2025 Collider article? Why is her voice actress still not listed on Wikipedia or IMDB?

What's even more interesting though, is that the description from the article of Nikki Baxter's features, "pinkish hair that's short on the sides", matches the Twitter Post.

D. The shenanigans of a potential anti-byler Netflix plant

We return to examine the cursed @BradleysBigBuy. Since the picture in their post matches the description of the Jun 2025 Collider article, let's evaluate if @BradleysBigBuy is posting leaks or just misinformation. It was verified that this account was created in May 2025 and has an instagram of the same name. The name of the Twitter account has changed three times, the last alteration being in July 2025. The handle itself is quite interesting already, it references Bradley's Big Buy, which is a Stranger Things in-universe supermarket located in Hawkins. The WSQK actually promotes ads from it (about one minute into the Twitter video):

Most of their retweets and likes are quite regular for a Stranger Things fan, perhaps with an anti-byler slant. However, occasionally, they throw in posts that seem to be leaks or clues:

This wouldn't be noteworthy in and of itself, as many Stranger Things fan accounts exist that create fake leaks or AI edits and try to hint at conformitygate.

However, together with this being the ONLY source used by mainstream media with the Nikki Baxter picture, it reveals a pattern: the account holder might be somewhat in the know or has some access to BTS information. Nikki Baxter is such a deep cut, it is confusing why someone would doctor an image of her... Unless this is a real leak. Edit: This account did tamper with the OG picture. But...

What's even worse though, regardless if this is a misinformation or a leak account, is that mainstream news outlets are citing it as if it's an official source of information!!! It's honestly infuriating.

This would be the place to wrap up this story, if we didn't stumble onto more conveniently placed misinformation. We have to talk about Nikki Baxter's mysterious appearance on Family Guy fanon Wikipedia.

As an aside, here are a couple of arguments for why @BradleysBigBuy could be a leak or even a Netflix plant account. This is not conclusive evidence.

- It is the ONLY source used by mainstream media of the Nikki Baxter picture and it matches a previous description of her from the June 2025 Collider article.

- The only picture of Nikki Baxter is of her being wrapped in vines... a plant. (idea by @nuffit )

- Most main stream news outlets used it as a "trustworthy" source of information in their reports around Jan 28 (2026). Either they collectively lost their minds and journalistic integrity or they know more than we do about it and were instructed to use it behind the scenes by the Netflix and Stranger things PR and social media teams.

- Through a conformitygate lense: This account is named after a Stranger Things in-universe supermarket, Bradley's Big Buy. It is trying to sell us BTS information. In the same way, the supermarket sells its ads on the semi-fictional radio show the Squawk (WSQK), which is run by Vance and Mindy Flare (Vecna and the Mind Flayer). That radio show is known for selling a false narrative in the same way the entirety of Stranger Things Season 5 has done. Is this Twitter account trying to sell Stranger Things: Tales of '85 to us? Is it trying to convince us that byler is not real? (some thoughts inspired by @arubikhandy0707 )

E. Nikki Baxter's mysterious appearance on Family Guy fanon Wikipedia

This might be the wildest and most confusing find while going down the Nikki Baxter rabbit hole. Mistakes were made in the first version of this post due to the nature of this particular misinformation. Thanks to @how-obvious for pointing it out to me. While looking up Nikki Baxter on the preferred search engine Duckduckgo, a Family Guy fanon Wikipedia page pops up that wrongfully names a character from Rooster Teeth's web series Camp Camp as Nikki Baxter instead of her real name, just "Nikki":

If you follow the Family Guy fanon Wikipedia paper trail, you first encounter the story of Max and Nikki from Camp Camp, where each episode they try to escape a summer camp, and fail. This parallels the story of Max and Holly, trying to escape Vecna's mind, dubbed Camasotz, and fail (potentially). A classic conformitygate reading.

Then, eventually you come across this piece of information:

This does NOT happen in "Cat Fight". @livinglikelarries and her friend had taken the arduous task of watching Season 18 Episode 5 of Family Guy. They confirmed the following:

- Camp Camp and Nikki and Max are NOT featured in S18E05.

- The B plot of Cat Fight is Chris, Lois and Meg ending up in some Christian cult and having to escape. Then, Meg goes home with a Japanese family, thinking she's finally free from her OG family and the Christian cult. But, she actually realizes that she ended up in an oppressive family yet again and is part of an anime. (Angry she's in another prison world, she kills the family. Edit: last part only acc to the fanon wiki btw)

Meg has the same name as the protagonist of A Wrinkle in Time. Meg being stuck again and again in worlds she doesn't want to be in (og family, cult, japanese family, anime), parallels both Camasotz from A Wrinkle in Time and and Vecna's mind in Stranger Things. Another classic conformitygate reading.

Mistakenly taking the information on the Family Guy fanon wikipedia page at face value, leads you into one direction only: interpreting Nikki Baxter as more conformitygate proof!

Of course, knowing that this is misinformation, we cannot make those parallels. Or can we? Anyone can edit the Family Guy fanon wikipedia page, since the majority of fanon wikis are fanfic projects anyway. The question is: Was this a coincidental mistake, a troll or intentional bait?

That's left up to the reader to decide, but consider that the combination of names, Nikki Baxter, does not exist outside of the Stranger Things: Tales of '85 context.

F. Summary and concluding remarks

We stumbled upon multiple glaring oddities:

0. Many articles report the exact same information and criticism on Jan 28 (2026), pointing out the weirdness surrounding Stranger Things: Tales of '85 and a supposed new character, Nikki Baxter.

1. She is only mentioned as Nikki in one official source: a synopsis of Chapter Book for Stranger Things: Tales of '85, which claims to have 6-9 year olds as a target audience, while context is needed from the show's content that is rated 13+. This Chapter Book was referenced by a Reddit post on Jan 24 (2026) that is one of the two sources in most articles reporting on the animation.

2. In both an official announcement trailer on Netflix's YouTube channel and on the IMDB page for the animation, she is not mentioned, does not have a voice actor and no character design. There is also only one episode listed.

3. There is one mention of her first and last name and a small description of her character design in a dubious Collider article from June 2025.

4. Only one picture of her exists, where she's wrapped in vines. It was posted on Jan 24 (2026), on a suspicious Twitter account called @BradleysBigBuy. This is one of the two sources for most articles reporting on the animation.

5. A Family Guy fanon Wikipedia page lists misinformation about Nikki from Rooster Teeth's web series Camp Camp that conveniently creates parallels between A Wrinkle in Time, Camasotz and Vecna's mind.

As Mr. "There are no coincidences", in my opinion, Nikki Baxter is one of the many puzzle pieces in the Stranger Things meta narrative, social experiment and ARG. I urge the reader to try and explain why we are observing all of this at the exact same time. Just this one character is involved in 5 major inconsistencies, that cannot really be explained outside of a conformitygate perspective.

Either you believe all news sources are spreading misinformation by sourcing an AI/fake image, or you think they are referencing an actual leak account and/or Netflix plant Edit: OR THEY ARE SOURCING A HIGHLY FAN EDITED PHOTO, WHILE THERE IS CONCEPT ART ON ANOTHER MORE CREDIBLE TWITTER ACCOUNT

Regardless, why are news outlets not being corrected or given additional context by Netflix and the Stranger Things social media and PR teams?

While I don't think the animation doesn't exist at all, I am actually quite certain there is an animation of some kind due to the IMDB page, I believe that the secrecy around it and the listing of only one episode of unknown length is at least suspicious, considering this animation should have already been months if not a year in the making.

The minimal content we've been provided, the couple of frames and concept art, the Chapter Book with no cover art, that one Twitter "leak", it points to the animation not quite being what it seems. Is it perhaps a narrative device inside this Stranger Things ARG, rather than a television show for 6-9 year olds? I don't know for sure, but I have gathered facts that seem to point towards that conclusion.

Especially the negative focus on Nikki Baxter in the press and the misinformation about Nikki from Rooster Teeth's Camp Camp leads me to believe we are supposed to notice that something's off. Rather than a bunch of coincidences, these inconsistencies seem intentional and purposeful.

Don't Hug me I'm Scared on Youtube

Stranger Things: Season 3 | Date Announcement [HD] | Netflix on Youtube

Between each new major drop of content, there are about 5 to 6 days. In those 5/6 days, they trickle down little clues on various social media accounts (YT, insta, TikTok), talk shows, through interviews in mainstream news outlets, puzzles, etc. The Stranger Things PR and social media team have their own prediction models, on how much to tease to keep the fans engaged. The intervals are quite short!

Dec 31st: Release Episode 8.

Jan 1st: Bring the idea of "conformitygate" into the public consciousness. (They most certainly planted or helped with spreading it.)

5/6 days later...

Jan 6th: Let Jamie Campbell Bower tease a countdown from 1 to 12, while saying it "starts tomorrow" (The sketch on Jimmy Fallon).

Jan 7th: Netflix servers are down at 8PM EST, an unexpected (?) consequence of people anticipating an alternate finale.

5/6 days later...

Jan 12th: Drop the "documentary".

5 days later...

Jan 17th: Let Finn Wolfhard play queer coded characters on SNL.

On the 17th of January, SNL aired one of the sketches starring Finn Wolfhard, Free Solo, which starts with a Netflix intro screen. They mention the date 23rd of January in it, which is also, coincidentally (not), 6 days later. It's about two men trying to climb a huge tower, one obnoxiously prepared and one foolishly underestimating the endeavor. At the end of the sketch, they use the Netflix credits screen and they say "We saw your Hockey Porn and we raise you a Live Death". Ominous.

I am not saying that the alternate finale or new volume will be released on that date, NO NO NO! But, considering the pattern of big developments in the Stranger Things meta narrative dropping every 5/6 days, I think we could expect something around the 23rd of January. We don't do exact dates on this blog. NO!