Full blown takeover.
Stranger Things has now completely taken over the Indian space. Started with Instamart, now it’s all over the place.
Its latest victim? Delhi Metro. And some fans aren’t really happy about it. Let’s dive deep now.
Posters of Stranger Things Season 5 are everywhere. Not tucked into corners, not modest little tiles, but massive, full-wall displays swallowing entire platforms. Eleven stares down at passengers. Vecna’s shadow looms over staircases. Even the escalators feel like portals to Hawkins.
For anyone who has travelled abroad, especially in the U.S., this might feel surreal.
You don’t see Indian streaming shows taking over New York subways or the Chicago L. You don’t see posters for Mirzapur or Kota Factory on a Manhattan platform, not because the shows aren’t good, but because Indian OTTs have never pushed their global marketing that aggressively. And yet, here in Delhi, Netflix is treating its home audience like the centre of the universe.
And honestly? It’s working.
Delhi Metro has always been a canvas for brands, but this campaign is different. It’s intentional, atmospheric, almost theatrical. It feels like Netflix understands the frenzy building around the Stranger Things finale, the midnight logins, the server crashes, the emotional chaos online, and is feeding that anticipation right back into the real world.
But it also reveals the stark imbalance in how platforms treat markets. India is Netflix’s fastest-growing region, yet Indian originals rarely get this kind of mainstream push. Hollywood does. Global franchises do. And that’s the real tension here. The Delhi Metro may look incredible right now, but it also quietly exposes what Indian content still doesn’t receive: the same marketing muscle, the same cultural positioning, the same belief in its own scale.
For now, Delhi has become Hawkins. The question is, will Indian shows ever get this treatment too?