Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Stranger Things fan theories about a secret bonus episode have been shut down once again in a Saturday Night Live sketch that roasted the outlandish conspiracies. The first SNL episode of 2026 was led by debut host Finn Wolfhard, who played Mike Wheeler for nine years in the hit Netflix show. His co-stars Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin surprised the audience during the actor’s monologue and returned later in the show during a pre-recorded sketch that poked fun at theories about Stranger Things continuing after its series finale. “Stranger Things is back with sequels, prequels, requels, and spin-offs,” a voiceover said in the sketch’s parody Netflix ad before playing faux trailers for spin-offs, including a series called Strangerous Minds about Steve Harrington continuing his teaching career, a show calledThe Wheeler Report about Nancy Wheeler as an investigative journalist, and a Sex …