Nerdly » The Filmmaker’s Podcast #486: ‘Stranger Things’ creators The Duffer Brothers

12th Jan2026

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #486: ‘Stranger Things’ creators The Duffer Brothers

by Phil Wheat

Here’s the latest episode of The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro-budget indie films to bigger-budget studio films and everything in between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dom Lenoir, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk about how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their filmmaking experiences from directors, writers, producers and screenwriters, to actors, cinematographers and distributors.

The Filmmaker’s Podcast #486: The Duffer Brothers: Creating STRANGER THINGS, Directing the Finale, and Surviving Hollywood Rejection

Filmmakers, we have the creators of the biggest show on the planet. The masterminds who took 80s nostalgia, Dungeons & Dragons, and a group of kids on bikes, and turned it into a global empire. I am talking, of course, about Matt and Ross Duffer—The Duffer Brothers! Now, you know them as the creators of Stranger Things, the show that literally breaks the internet every time a new season
drops. But what we love about this conversation is that we go right back to the start. We talk about their 2015 low-budget horror thriller, Hidden—a film that got caught in studio limbo but taught them the vital lessons of directing and how they pitched Stranger Things around various studios and TV execs getting rejections along the way. We dive into how they work as a duo, how they pitch to networks (and deal with rejection!), and the absolute mountain of work it takes to land the final season of the most popular show in the world.