In April 2018, filmmaker Charlie Kessler filed a lawsuit against the Duffer Brothers, claiming that they stole his idea behind his short film Montauk for Stranger Things. Kessler's Montauk featured a similar premise of a missing boy, a nearby military base doing otherworldy experiments, and a monster from another dimension. Kessler withdrew after hearing the depositions and seeing documents from as early as 2010 which proved the Duffers had already come up with the concept of Stranger Things prior to him.