Mexican-Salvadoran Eric Robles is taking us back to Hawkins, Indiana in Stranger Things: Tales From ’85.
The animated series just premiered on Netflix, and though the show has the Duffer Brothers as executive producers, it’s really the brainchild of Robles. Remezcla spoke with Robles about pitching the show, how his dad shaped his love of horror since childhood, and how his Latinidad was important for the series.
For Robles, whose work ranges from The Grim Advenures of Billy & Mandy to Fanboy & Chum Chum, cracking the code of Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 meant going back to his childhood. Because the show, which takes place between seasons two and three of the flagship series, needed a specific point of view and a specific origin point.
“If it takes place between two and three, you know that the gate’s closed. You know that nothing from the Upside Down should be alive, right? So how do you create monsters?” Robles asked. “How do you create things from the upside down?” And thinking about it, “I went back and I started thinking about a lot of the movies I watched in the 80s as a kid. And one of them was a VHS copy of Reanimator.”
Robles explained, “The concept was this kind of mad scientist guy who ends up creating the serum to bring organic body parts back to life, and eventually dead people back to life. And I was like, oh, that’s kind of cool. What if it’s Hawkins Lab science meets Upside Down dead matter? And we find ways to bring these things back to life from the Upside Down?”
He then went to the Duffer Brothers with this and pitched. And they loved it.
“I pitched them this idea and they were like ‘Oh, my gosh.’ And then we got so excited about what the possibilities could be,” Robles said before adding that this excitement was grounded in them being allowed to “really expand the stories in a way that doesn’t interfere with the main timeline or the main narrative of the live action show, but allowed us to get our cake and eat it too.” aka, “go on new adventures with these beloved characters at an age when they were still young and they wouldn’t have to worry about saving the world or Vecna.”
That’s basically Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85.
For Robles, this love for horror and this journey to Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, it all goes back to his dad. He shared with Remezcla, “I had a young dad. He was 17 when he had me. So imagine my dad being in his 20s, having like an eight-year-old me and going, “A ver, mijo, ven pa’ acá. He goes, “vamos a ver esta película. Es como un jardinero con machete. Se llama Jason.”
He went on to add, “And so he introduced me to a lot of horror flicks when I was a kid, which got me to the love of horror, the strange things, all of this stuff. So I have such a library of all these films that I grew up watching. That’s why Reanimator was just like, oh, this is how we crack the code.”
Robles also talked about both his parents, and the joy they get from seeing how far he’s come. “They’re hardworking Latino parents, two jobs each, you know what I mean? And it’s one of these moments in our lives, just as individuals, to just reflect and be like, here we are. They came to this country in the seventies and worked their butts off for my sisters and me to have educations and to live our dreams. And here we are, like fulfilling that.”
And here he is now making a story for fans while also showing us that Latinos, we’re everywhere. “To have an opportunity to work on this beloved IP, all I’m bringing with my team is the pure love and excitement that we have for this show. So we’re not trying to disrespect any fans out there, man. We’re hardcore fans ourselves.”
Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 is now available to stream on Netflix.
This interview with Eric Robles was conducted by Lyra Hale.