Bad news for Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer today, as a California judge has shut down their attempts to dismiss a pending lawsuit against them in a burst of late-in-the-season, deus ex machina-y superpowers. Specifically, The Hollywood Reporter notes that Los Angeles judge Michael Stern has shot down the Duffers’ request for a summary judgment against filmmaker Charlie Kessler, stating that the duo have failed to definitively prove that there’s no merit to Kessler’s claims—first brought forward last year—that the brothers lifted ideas from his short film “Montauk” in the creation of their beloved Netflix show.
All of which means that Stranger Things is likely headed to court next month, where Kessler will attempt to make his case that a conversation he had with the duo at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014—in which they discussed their shared interest in the alleged paranormal activity surrounding a disused military research station on Long Island, and in which the Duffers reportedly told Kessler “they should work together”—provided a meaningful basis for the world of Hawkins, IN, and constituted enough of a binding agreement to entitle him to a third of the blockbuster show’s profits.