Upcoming 'Stranger Things' Plagiarism Trial Could Reveal Season 3 Spoilers

As Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer head to trial over plagiarism charges, they're worried about something worse than litigation: spoilers. Charlie Kessler is suing the Duffers, claiming they stole the idea for their hit Netflix series from a script he wrote. The Duffers deny this. In addition to fighting to prove their ownership of the show, the Duffers are also hoping to avoid Stranger Things season 3 spoilers from getting out due to the trail, and have brought a motion to seal portions of the record to stop this.

If you're hoping to avoid Stranger Things season 3 spoilers, you should probably avoid following the upcoming trial against creators the Duffer Brothers. The Duffers are headed to court against Charlie Kessler, who claims they ripped-off his script The Montauk Project, which is set in a small town home to various urban legends. That really doesn't sound that much like Stranger Things, save for the small town vibe, but having not read Kessler's script, I can't shrug off his complaint entirely. For his part, Kessler says he pitched the idea to Duffers at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Per THR:

"Charlie Kessler asserts that he met the Duffers, then two young filmmakers whom Kessler never had heard of, and chatted with them for ten to fifteen minutes," wrote the defendants' attorney. "That casual conversation — during which the Duffers supposedly said that they all 'should work together' and asked 'what [Kessler] was working on' — is the sole basis for the alleged implied contract at issue in this lawsuit and for Kessler's meritless theory that the Duffers used his ideas to create Stranger Things."

The Duffers counter that they've long been fans of urban legends and came up with the idea for the show themselves. Unfortunately, they have no proof to back this up, so a judge has ruled they need to go to trial to sort this whole thing out. As much as the Duffers might want to prove their innocence, they're also concerned about spoilers (aren't we all?).

To head off info about future Stranger Things seasons from leaking, the Duffers have filed a motion to seal portions of the trial, stating through their lawyer that "public disclosure threatens substantial harm not only to their legitimate privacy interests, but also as to their ongoing commercial efforts, including by revealing confidential information that may be included in future episodes of Stranger Things and weakening the Duffers' (and Netflix's) position in future commercial negotiations."

Stranger Things season 3 is set to premiere on Netflix July 4, 2019. Hopefully this will all be sorted out by then.