The Duffer brothers are calling bullshit on those claims of Stranger Things-related plagiarism you may have heard about earlier this week.
In a statement via their legal team Wednesday, Matt and Ross Duffer characterized the claims as merely an attempt at making a few dollars at the successful series' expense. "Mr. Kessler's claim is completely meritless," attorney Alex Kohner toldDeadline. "He had no connection to the creation or development of Stranger Things. The Duffer Brothers have neither seen Mr. Kessler's short film nor discussed any project with him. This is just an attempt to profit from other people's creativity and hard work."
As previously reported, the guy in question claims that he pitched ideas to the Duffer team at a Tribeca Film Festival event in 2014 that were later used in the development of what would eventually become arguably the biggest Netflix original series in history. The claims hinge on the use of Montauk as the series' working title, a title previously used for a short film by Kessler in 2012. As others have already noted, however, the use of Montauk dates back much further than 2012. In the early 90s, for example, a Montauk Project book was released that focused on the "most amazing and secretive research project" ever.
Next for Stranger Things is a (possibly slightly delayed) third season, which means we may be nearing the end of the Netflix smash. Back in August, the Duffers publicly entertained the idea of making the series a "four-season thing and then out." We shall see.
