The Lawsuit Against the Creators of STRANGER THINGS Has Been Dropped

About a year ago a lawsuit was filed against Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer for stealing the idea for the show from a man named Charlie Kessler. Shortly after they were slapped with the lawsuit, the Duffers said that they could prove that they didn’t steal any of their ideas for the show and said that the accusations were “completely meritless.”

Well, the Duffer Bros. failed to get the plagiarism case tossed out, so they ended up going to court and that’s when things took an interesting turn. Why? Because the lawsuit ended up being dropped by Kessler before the trial, which was set to start on Tuesday.

Kessler claimed that he pitched the brothers an idea for a project based on urban legends about a decommissioned military installation in Montauk, New York. But in a statement he recently released, he acknowledged that ”the brothers have demonstrated that they conceived the idea independently.”

The Duffer bros. ended up producing emails and Google documents showing that they were working on the concept as early as 2010. Kessler went on to say:

“After hearing the deposition testimony this week of the legal expert I hired, it is now apparent to me that, whatever I may have believed in the past, my work had nothing to do with the creation of Stranger Things. Documents from 2010 and 2013 prove that the Duffers independently created their show. As a result, I have withdrawn my claim and I will be making no further comment on this matter.”

So Kessler isn’t going to be getting all of that money that he was hoping for. Netflix also issued a statement regarding how this all played out, saying:

“We are glad to be able to put this baseless lawsuit behind us. As we have said all along, Stranger Things is a ground-breaking original creation by The Duffer Brothers. We are proud of this show and of our friends Matt and Ross, whose artistic vision gave life to Stranger Things, and whose passion, imagination and relentless hard work alongside our talented cast and crew made it a wildly successful, award-winning series beloved by viewers around the world.”

So, I guess Netflix, the Duffers, and everyone else can move on with their lives. They don’t have to stress out or waste their time or energy over this nonsense anymore.