The Duffer Brothers: From Homemade Movies to ‘Stranger Things’

Twin brothers Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer are the creative minds behind Netflix’s Stranger Things. The Duffer Brothers fell in love with movies as children, which led them to Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. To make their Hollywood dreams come true, they began to write and sell a spec script—or one they would write and submit, as a whole, for consideration.

After several rejections, they pitched Stranger Things to Netflix executives. Season one of the show dropped on July 15, 2016. Since then, the series has received several accolades: Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and a prestigious Peabody Award for entertainment, just to name a few.

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross faced plenty of setbacks before selling the science fiction show to Netflix. Here’s a brief breakdown of their lives and careers:

• Growing up in North Carolina: Matt and Ross Duffer were born in 1984 in Durham, North Carolina. As children, they voraciously consumed every VHS tape they could get their hands on—from Disney’s classic animated feature Dumbo to Tim Burton’s Batman. In third grade they received a Hi9 camcorder from their parents for Christmas, which sparked their passion for not only watching films but creating them.
• Becoming filmmakers: The Duffer Brothers developed their filmmaking talent with countless home videos, even adapting their favorite tabletop card game, “Magic: The Gathering,” into a film. As part of their endless pursuit of compelling stories, they continued making films throughout high school, aspiring to be like their idols: filmmakers Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, and author Stephen King.
• Studying film: After high school, the brothers attended Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Orange, California. While at the school, they worked on several projects, such as Eater, a horror film. The twins graduated in 2007.
• Writing on spec: Matt and Ross quickly realized what they needed to do so Hollywood would take them seriously. They set out to write and sell a script on spec. It took years, but eventually, Matt and Ross landed an agent and secured producers for their project Hidden, a sci-fi thriller about a family hiding in a bomb shelter from lurking monsters. A bidding war ensued, and in 2011, Warner Bros. purchased the rights with Matt and Ross set to direct. However, the film never saw a theatrical release.
• Staying afloat: As they continued to pursue their own projects, they got jobs as writers on the television series Wayward Pines to help them stay afloat. By day, Matt and Ross honed their writing skills and learned the ins and outs of working for a studio on the M. Night Shyamalan–produced series. Off-set, they worked on Stranger Things, then known as Montauk; they continually found themselves drawn to the idea of a story wherein the ordinary meets the extraordinary.
  
• Pitching Stranger Things: To get the series off the ground, the brothers had to sell it to a studio. The Stranger Things pitch endured more than a dozen rejections before landing on the desk of Netflix executives. Matt and Ross sold their script—a multigenerational adventure that was a tonal mash-up of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Goonies (1985), and IT (1990). Netflix immediately greenlit (approved) the series and agreed to have Matt and Ross direct.

The Duffer Brothers have made films since childhood. Here’s a look at a few projects they have worked on:

• We All Fall Down (2005): Before graduating from Chapman, the twins wrote and directed this short about a family haunted by those they left behind after moving to the countryside during the Great Plague.
• Vessel (2012): This short horror film follows the passengers of Flight 298, who encounter an out-of-this-world force in the middle of their trip.
• Wayward Pines (2015): The Duffer Brothers wrote for this M. Night Shyamalan–produced show. The plot revolves around a Secret Service agent who goes to Wayward Pines, Idaho, to look for two missing federal agents.
• Stranger Things (2016): Stranger Things is a TV series that follows a group of school-aged friends in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the 1980s. The Netflix series had two original villains: the demogorgon and Dr. Martin Brenner. The demogorgon, inspired by the fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, terrified the show’s D&D-playing protagonists (Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair, and Dustin Henderson). In Stranger Things Season 1, the demogorgon originated in a parallel dimension that the characters dub the Upside Down. Dr. Martin Brenner, the manipulative director of the CIA-sanctioned MKAUltra, abused Eleven, a young girl with psychic abilities. The show stars Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Sadie Sink, and Noah Schnapp.

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