Wild New Fan Theory Predicts Connection Between 'Stranger Things' and 'Chernobyl'

As HBO’s latest miniseries Chernobyl is being watched and celebrated by plenty of viewers (enough to make it the highest-rated TV show on IMDb), it appears a few fans are using it as a bit of a history lesson of sorts, and are applying the nuclear disaster to other things in pop culture. While the explosion occurred all the way back in 1986, the new show is giving fan theorists inspiration as to why fictional events in other shows based in the ‘80s might happen. Case in point: this new, slightly crazy theory believes the kids of Stranger Things will be facing the consequences of Chernobyl.

As reported by Decider, a person on Reddit is speculating that the fourth season of Stranger Things will deal with the infamous disaster. Although the third season, due out on July 4 of this year, hasn’t even debuted yet, producer Shawn Levy has come out and said they will do at least four seasons. So naturally, this has fans thinking ahead.

User Singular94 writes that after watching the HBO show and discovering that the third season of the Netflix series takes place in 1985, they believe the events of Chernobyl could line up well with the fourth season, and might be written into the show. Ending their post asking for people’s thoughts, the Redditor has received comments both supporting the idea and against it. One speculated:

“Chernobyl could actually have a secret russian lab just like Hawkins’ one, someone with powers connects to the [Upside Down] just like Eleven, and the opened gate would make the Nuclear Plant explode. Or maybe they would try to open a gate intentionally to the [Upside Down], but it doesn[’]t go as expected.”

While the idea sounds pretty silly at first, the comments on the post are kind of convincing. Plus, fans had already noticed previously that on the Stranger Things IMDb page, characters were listed for Season 3, but have since been altered, with titles such as “Russian soldier” and “Russian guard.” But despite the possible connection between the two shows, we still have a whole season to get through to know anything for sure.

Stranger Things returns on July 4.

This article also appears on Mental Floss.