Horror Master Stephen King Says the ‘Slimy’ Pilot Yuri in ‘Stranger Things 4’ Deserves a Spinoff
With the release of Stranger Things Season 4, the hit sci-fi series has been on the minds of fans once again. The newest season brought deeper plotlines and new characters that have been the center of plenty of online chatter. Even horror writer Stephen King, whose work has influenced Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers, offered his thoughts on a scene-stealing new character, Yuri.
The author’s work has influenced the hit Netflix series
Stephen King’s first horror novel, 1974’s Carrie, became a huge success. Since then, the prolific writer has sold over 350 million copies worldwide, Biography reports. King released multiple books a year through the 1980s and 1990s. He’s one of the most famous and successful horror authors of all time.
Many of King’s works have been adapted for film and television. Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek, premiered in 1976. The Shining, one of King’s best-known movie adaptations, featuring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, was released in 1980. Cujo debuted in 1983, while Firestarter followed in 1984. Pet Sematary hit screens in 1989 and again in 2019. And It, featuring the child-killing Pennywise the clown, became a TV miniseries in 1990 and a chilling feature film in 2017.
In 1991, Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her star turn in 1990’s Misery, opposite James Caan. The Shawshank Redemption (1994), starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, also earned several Oscar nominations. And King’s serialized story The Green Mile hit the big screen in 1999 with Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan.
The Duffer brothers have taken inspiration from many of those works and referenced them in Stranger Things.
Stephen King has some thoughts about ‘Stranger Things’
Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer — aka the Duffer brothers — are big fans of Stephen King. The feeling is mutual. The horror master also enjoys watching Stranger Things and has something to say about one of the new characters in season 4.
A few days after season 4 debuted on May 27, King took to Twitter:
“STRANGER THINGS: I love that slimy, slinky Russian guy, Yuri. He deserves his own show. Like BARRY, only Russian.”
According to CNET, Yuri, played by Nikola Djuricko, is “the middleman in a deal between Joyce and a prison guard named Enzo, tasked with collecting payment from Joyce and helping Hopper in the last leg of his escape from a Russian prison camp.” Yuri is seedy and untrustworthy, and because of him, Joyce’s plans go awry.
In his tweet, King mentions Barry. It’s a reference to the HBO dark comedy Barry, starring Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live fame. In the series, a depressed Midwestern hitman moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the LA theater scene.
‘Stranger Things’ nods to numerous Stephen King works
Stephen King’s stories have inspired many writers and filmmakers. The Duffer brothers are no different. Pointing to King as an inspiration, they make plenty of references to the horror master’s work throughout Stranger Things.
King himself acknowledged how strongly his works appear in the Netflix hit when he wrote on Twitter: “Watching STRANGER THINGS is…watching Steve King’s Greatest Hits. I mean that in a good way.”
Unless you’re a huge King fan, you might have missed some of these hat tips to the horror master sprinkled throughout Stranger Things:
- Season 1: It, Firestarter, Needful Things, The Body
- Season 2: It, The Body (and references to Maine, King’s home state)
- Season 3: Christine, The Shining
- Season 4: Carrie, Firestarter, It, Black House, The Talisman
