Netflix's New 6-Part Series With Charlie Heaton Is Stranger Things On A Boat

Published Jul 22, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Stranger Things might be over, that doesn’t mean that one star of the series, Charlie Heaton, won’t face off against more mysterious monsters in his next Netflix project. The end of Stranger Things brought with it a lot of disappointment as many viewers were angered by the divisive series finale. However, one character who got a surprisingly strong coda for their previously abandoned character arc was Charlie Heaton’s Jonathan Byers. Jonathan was a fairly major character in season 1 of the series, where he attempted to track down his missing brother Will with the help of his eventual love interest Nancy Wheeler. Even though Heaton and his co-star Natalia Dyer started a real-life romance on the show’s set, their Stranger Things characters endured a messy, unsatisfying multi-season will they, won’t they relationship that never amounted to much. However, while season 5’s treatment of Millie Bobby Brown’s Stranger Things heroine Eleven was more controversial, the conclusion of Jonathan’s arc was unexpectedly strong. Heaton’s character got a chance to play a part in defeating Vecna and, although he and Nancy didn’t end up together, their intense breakup was the best scene either character had since the show’s second season. Jonathan’s eventual fate as an aspiring filmmaker was a fitting one for the likable, awkward small-town nerd, and it was sweet to see the finale’s time jump reveal that he, Steve, Robin, and Nancy remained friends. However, this doesn’t mean that the prospect of Heaton returning to Netflix for another small-town horror in 2026’s Below is any less exciting. Below Has One Major Factor Working In Its Favor The upcoming mystery thriller/ small-town horror show Below will once again see a character played by Heaton investigating a mysterious monster plaguing a small town, only this time it's a sea monster in a fishing town. Below stars Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a fisherman from a small town in Newfoundland who never quite got over the mysterious death of his father. When a mysterious sea monster begins to wreak havoc, Calvin and his son, Heaton’s Wade, must work together to stop the beast before it’s too late. With MacKenzie Davis as a marine researcher looking into the town’s strange monster, this six-part miniseries has no shortage of star power. However, there is one other thing that marks Below out as one of 2026’s most exciting new horror shows, even amid big competitors like Mike Flanagan’s Prime Video version of Carrie. Below is a limited series, so there is no need to worry about the show getting bogged down in setup for future seasons. Stranger Things was originally intended to be a standalone miniseries, but the first season of the series proved so popular that it was renewed for a second season, then an even bigger third season. Eventually, the show spawned a sprawling multimedia franchise, but this wasn’t an unambiguously good thing for the series. Not only did Stranger Things start holding back big plot twists and narrative developments, but the show’s scope also increased dramatically. Season 3 was a particularly cartoony, outlandish outing that lost the tone of the first season entirely, abandoning the creepy small-town mystery vibes of Twin Peaks in favor of obnoxious blockbuster action sequences. While some viewers found this fun, the majority of fans agreed that the more grounded feel of seasons 1 and 2 fit the series better, and season 4 was appropriately darker and grittier. Sadly, season 5 ended the show on a low note as Stranger Things went bigger than ever with an outing that felt more like a Marvel movie than a return to the grounded first season of the show. Luckily, Below is unlikely to repeat this Stranger Things mistake since Charlie Heaton and Josh Hartnett’s upcoming series is a self-contained standalone miniseries. Release Date October 8, 2026 Network Netflix Showrunner Jesse McKeown Directors Jamie Childs, Stephen Dunn, Helen Shaver Writers Perry Chafe, Jesse McKeown, Karen Walton, Natty Zavitz Cast Mackenzie Davis Fonda Howander Rohan Campbell Jay Penney