The 10 Greatest Stephen King Easter Eggs in ‘Stranger Things,’ Ranked
Perhaps one of the most influential individuals on Stranger Things is prolific horror novelist Stephen King. Though King has minimized how much credit the Duffers have given to him, he’s given a lot of kudos to the creators and the series itself. While the man himself may not mind his influence popping up everywhere in Hawkins and the Upside Down, fans have adored picking the show apart. From literary books to character influences, here are the nods to Stephen King. While there have certainly been other major Easter eggs, these are the best.
10. Season 1, Episode 4 Title Is ‘The Body’
If you’re looking for a direct reference to King’s body of work, look no further than Season 1’s fourth episode entitled “The Body.” While most people think of it as the hit 1986 film, Stand By Me, it was actually inspired by King’s novella, The Body. The story takes place in Castle Rock, Maine, as Gordie LaChance and his friends set out to find a missing boy who had disappeared and is presumed dead. While we’ll discuss the coming-of-age story much more throughout this article, the title’s association with the episode directly links the episode’s action as Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) refuses that her son’s body was found in the quarry.
9. Hawkins Is Just Like Derry
There are many ways you can look at Hawkins. While many of Stephen King’s stories are set in the infamous town of Castle Rock, there’s actually one town that is eerily similar to Hawkins, and it’s not Castle Rock. It’s Derry. That’s Derry from It. Set in the late 1950s, the fictional town in Maine plays host to the Losers Club’s adventure to defeat the ancient, transdimensional evil that awakens every 27 years to feed on the town’s children. As for the landscape, both towns are notorious for the woods, key places where the kids roam and conspire.
8. Bob References a Creepy Clown in Season 2
For many individuals, there is absolutely nothing scarier than a clown. In fact, Stephen King made an entire career terrorizing our nightmares with the creepiest clown of all, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. We’ve seen clowns all across Hawkins. The central character in King’s It, Pennywise is known to haunt the kids of Derry by tapping into their greatest fears. Well, that might be something one lost soul has in common with Georgie Denbrough: Bob Newby.
7. The Gang Has a Coming-of-Age Adventure Like in ‘The Body’
Perhaps the most obvious correlation between Stranger Things and Stephen King is our quartet reflecting the boys from The Body. As previously mentioned, The Body‘s big screen adaptation, Stand By Me, features a similar group of friends on a mission to find a missing child. The basis of Stranger Things reads like Stand By Me: four friends on the search for something lost. To make subtle references, the boys are seen walking along railroad tracks, which is a very iconic image from both the book and the film.
When Stranger Things first began, there was a clear journey for our characters’ end-of-childhood arc. It was set up as a story about the loss of innocence. Now, as we embark on our final chapter, the kids are no longer kids. They are about to be men and women after four years of life-defining trauma.
6. The Mind Flayer Emerges From ‘The Mist’
Like in The Mist, Stranger Things is notorious for the concept of a portal to another world where demonic, monstrous creatures are eager to rip through and terrorize the denizens of a small town. While we know that the monsters of the Upside Down can cross into the real world, in The Mist, the monsters stay out of the safety zone. The survivors of the story are hunkering down for safety in a grocery store, but there is a prominent scene in which a boy ties a safety line around their waist, only for the monsters to take him, and only for a bloody cord to be pulled back. It’s a similar fate that happened to some unlucky participants in the Upside Down.
5. Lucas Reads ‘The Talisman’ to Max in Season 4
In the book, written by King and Peter Straub, a twelve-year-old named Jack Sawyer travels to another realm to retrieve an object that will save his dying mother. Though we begin with Max still in her comatose state in Season 5, we know that she’s still kicking in Vecna’s mindscape. There’s still a chance for Lucas to save his girl by finding the key to defeating Vecna in the Upside Down.
4. Eleven’s Telekinesis Powers Resemble Stephen King Characters
A young girl with strange powers. Sounds familiar, right? Well, if you take a peek at two of Stephen King’s biggest pieces that feature young girls with strange powers, then you can see exactly where Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) came from. Eleven is essentially a little bit of Carrie White from Carrie and a whole lot of Charlie McGee from Firestarter. The former terrorizes her school at prom with telekinesis. The latter has pyrokinesis and uses her destructive force against the ruthless government agency that tries to harness her powers for its own purposes. The mashup has created one of the most beloved characters in 21st-century television.
3. The Party Resembles the Losers Club From ‘It’
Our heroes in Stranger Things are anything but “losers,” but their archetype is quite similar to the group of friends found in It, known as the Losers Club. In both stories, the friend group comprises a group of outcasts. And in both stories, our merry band of pals is off on a dangerous mission to fight a demonic presence. In Stranger Things, it’s Vecna and his army of monstrous baddies. In It, it’s the terrifying clown, Pennywise.
There are major comparisons in which both groups share. They both embark on harrowing adventures while navigating school bullies, and they both embark on their harrowing adventures on bikes. To be fair, there wasn’t any better mode of transportation for kids in the ’80s than bikes. While society may put the “loser” moniker onto our quintet, including Eleven, Stranger Things celebrates the quirks. Dungeons and Dragons is cool!
2. The Upside Down Shares Parallels to ‘It’
Though it may be a bit of a stretch, but go with me on this. There are some similarities between the Upside Down and It. That is in the sense of how our terrifying fear-feeding dancing clown comes to terrorize the children of Derry. Pennywise first comes to capture Georgie when his paper boat floats down a flooded street and disappears into a sewer drain. That’s where he encounters Pennywise and lures him into the drain. From there, the Losers Club head into the sewer drain to try to confront Pennywise.
As Stranger Things has progressed through five seasons, Vecna has lured children and adults alike into the Upside Down. As seen during Season 5, Vecna used his Demogorgons to lure children into the Upside Down after preying on their naivety through Mr. Whatsit. The action of Season 5 is propelled when Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) is kidnapped into the Upside Down. Both Holly and Georgie have newfound parallels, but the sewer drain and the Upside Down serve as portals for the monsters to enter through.
1. The Title Font Is a Homage to Stephen King
“They were influenced by book covers as kids. They sent over a Stephen King book with ’80s typography, which was big, bold, chunky, almost decorative,” Michelle Dougherty revealed. Dougherty and her team at Imaginary Forces did incredible research on many major ’80s films to draw further inspiration for the now iconic title sequence.
