<P> The Duffer Brothers developed the series as a mix of investigative drama alongside supernatural elements with childlike sensibilities, establishing its time frame in the 1980s and creating a homage to pop culture of that decade . Several themes and directorial aspects were inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Stephen King, among others . </P> <P> The series was released on Netflix on July 15, 2016 . It received critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, soundtrack, directing, writing, and homages to 1980s genre films . The series has received several industry nominations and awards, including winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2016, and receiving eighteen nominations for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series . On August 31, 2016, Netflix renewed the series for a second season of nine episodes, which is set to be released on October 27, 2017 . A year later, the Duffer Brothers confirmed the series would have a third season, with a desire to conclude Stranger Things with a fourth season . </P> <P> Stranger Things is set in the fictional rural town of Hawkins, Indiana, during the early 1980s . The nearby Hawkins National Laboratory ostensibly performs scientific research for the United States Department of Energy, but secretly does experiments into the paranormal and supernatural, including those that involve human test subjects . These start to affect the unknowing residents of Hawkins in calamitous ways . </P> <Ul> <Li> Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, mother of 12 - year - old Will Byers and teenager Jonathan Byers . Divorced from Lonnie, she relies on her older son, Jonathan, for help . </Li> <Li> David Harbour as Jim Hopper, chief of Hawkins Police Department . Hopper divorced after his young daughter died of cancer, which caused him to lapse into alcoholism . </Li> <Li> Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, son of Karen, younger brother of Nancy, and one of three friends of Will Byers . He is an intelligent and conscientious student and is committed to his friends . </Li> <Li> Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven ("El"), a young girl with psychokinetic abilities and a limited vocabulary . She befriends Mike, Dustin, and Lucas . It is eventually revealed that she may be Jane Ives, the biological daughter of Terry Ives . She escaped from Hawkins Laboratory where experiments were being performed on her . </Li> <Li> Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, one of Will's friends . His cleidocranial dysplasia causes him to lisp . </Li> <Li> Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, one of Will's friends . He is wary of Eleven, yet befriends her later on . </Li> <Li> Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, daughter of Karen, older sister of Mike, and girlfriend of Steve Harrington . </Li> <Li> Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, the older brother of Will Byers and the son of Joyce Byers . Considered an outsider at school, he is a quiet teenager and an aspiring photographer . He is very close with his mother and brother . </Li> <Li> Cara Buono as Karen Wheeler, mother of teenaged Nancy, middle schooler Mike, and toddler Holly . </Li> <Li> Matthew Modine as Martin Brenner, the scientist in charge of Hawkins Laboratory and the experiments performed there . He is manipulative and remote . He and his team are searching for Eleven . </Li> <Li> Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, the younger brother of Jonathan Byers and the son of Joyce Byers . He vanishes after encountering the monster that escaped through a rift to the "Upside Down", an alternate dimension, discovered by the Hawkins Laboratory scientists . </Li> <Li> Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, the boyfriend of Nancy Wheeler . A popular student at the high school, he initially tries to develop a relationship with Nancy and ostracize Jonathan Byers, though he comes to regret the latter . </Li> <Li> Sadie Sink as Max, a tomboy with a complicated history and a suspicion of those around her . </Li> <Li> Dacre Montgomery as Billy, Max's older stepbrother, who has a violent and unpredictable nature hiding under his charisma . </Li> </Ul>

When does stranger things season 1 take place