Stranger Things Theory Connects Netflix Show to Wizard of Oz

etween the two popular universes.”I am rewatching Season 4 and thought this,” one viewer said. “Eddie is the cowardly lion and Robin is the Tin Man.””Rewatched Season 1 today and the cops pull up to Hawkins’ lab and call it the Emerald City,” another said.”And they have Return to Oz on theater marquee in Season 3,” a third viewer shared.In the TikTok video, the creator draws attention to the recurring rainbow imagery surrounding Eleven, suggesting a deliberate visual cue used by the Duffer brothers to foreshadow her journey. The post also highlights similarities in character dynamics. “Henry is known as a dark wizard who manipulates Eleven and the Wizard manipulates Dorothy…Dorothy also found out that the Wizard wasn’t who he said he was,” the overlaid text continues.Fans familiar with both franchises quickly noted that the suggestion was not without precedent. The Wizard of Oz, like Stranger Things, features a protagonist thrust into a surreal alternate reality filled with danger and deception. The TikTok text continues to build the case by noting, “there’s a lot of rainbows when foreshadowing someone in the Upside Down. There’s a lot of dream states in the Wizard of Oz. Max even called it a ‘waking nightmare’ and Victor Creel would hear ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me.'”The parallels deepen with narrative conclusions. “Dorothy found a way to send the Wizard back home and Eleven found a way to send Henry back home (he went over the rainbow) literally,” the creator noted, referencing the visual depiction of Henry being hurled back into the Upside Down in Season 4.In the comments, some viewers speculated that the creators of Stranger Things may have been influenced not only by The Wizard of Oz but also by Wicked, the Broadway musical that explores the backstories of Oz’s characters, and Alice in Wonderland.