Stranger Things: the first prequel will be a stage show

Stranger Things: the first prequel will be a stage show

Stranger Things

In anticipation of Season 5 arriving next year, Stranger Things fans are getting ready to say goodbye to their favorite characters. The certainty, however, is that the creators of the series, the Duffer brothers, plan to expand the narrative universe of Hawkins with several spin-offs. The first will already arrive by the end of 2023, but it's not what many expect: it will in fact be a theatrical show. In the past few hours Stranger Things: The First Shadow has been announced, a play that will act as a prequel to the events we have learned about since 2016. In particular, the show will obviously focus on the origins of the monstrous Vecna, but there will also be versions younger than characters like Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers, whom we have so far seen as adults played by David Harbor and Winona Ryder respectively.

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The story will be set precisely in Hawkins in 1959 . In a town seemingly like any other, everything goes on as usual: a young Hopper has problems with his car, Bob Newby (the character played in the second season by Sean Astin) is grappling with his own radio show while Joyce can't see the time to graduate to run away. But a new family also arrives in the city, the Creels, who try to start over from scratch even if the shadows of the past, especially those concerning the young son Henry, do not seem to want to clear away. As we know from the revelations of the last season, little Henry Creel develops strange psychic powers but also anti-social behaviors that lead him to exterminate his own family, to then be treated by Dr. Brenner; it will then be Eleven, decades later, who awakens his powers and finally sends him to the Upside Down.

The show promises to tell the origins of the horrifying mystery of Hawkins through compelling storytelling and also a cutting-edge stage design, revealing elements that, placed at the beginning of the story, could be fundamental to its conclusion. Written by Kate Trefry , former writer and co-executive producer of the parent series, The First Shadow will be directed by none other than Stephen Daldry , former director of films and plays such as Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Inheritance , while the Duffers will supervise as producers creative. As with any self-respecting theatrical debut, the show based on Stranger Things will debut in the last months of 2023 in London's West End, more precisely at the Phoenix Theater, to then continue its replicas in the United States.