Netflix will take Stranger Things back to the 1950s with a live-action prequel called Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure. The company announced on November 6 that the series is coming in 2028. Its story begins before both the original Netflix series and the Broadway play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which takes place in 1959.
The announcement gives the project a title, an era and a creative team. Netflix had already disclosed a live-action Stranger Things spinoff in July 2022, when Matt and Ross Duffer announced their production company, Upside Down Pictures. At the time, the company gave no title or release year for the show.
Where Other Worlds fits in the timeline
The new series goes further back than any of the franchise's released screen stories. Netflix's announcement places it in the 1950s, and the announcement teaser specifies April 19, 1955, in Marion, Nevada, a fictional town. New Mexico is where production will take place. The teaser's date and place establish a setting without revealing the story or who lives there.
Four years later in the franchise timeline, The First Shadow follows a young Henry Creel in Hawkins, Indiana. The original series opens in November 1983 with Will Byers' disappearance. The animated Tales From '85 takes place in the winter of 1985, between the second and third seasons of the original show. It brings back younger versions of the familiar Hawkins kids, while the Duffers say Other Worlds will introduce new heroes and villains.
That chronology puts the stage play and the animated series in different parts of the same story world. The First Shadow goes back to a character whose past becomes important in the original show. Tales From '85 fills in a stretch of the kids' lives the original episodes skipped. Other Worlds will start years before Henry's Hawkins story, with a new ensemble in another setting. Netflix has yet to say whether any character from the original series will appear.
Who is making the prequel
Kate Trefry, a writer on the original series and the playwright behind The First Shadow, co-created Other Worlds with the Duffer brothers. She will write, executive produce and run the series. For the stage play, Trefry worked from an original story by the Duffers, playwright Jack Thorne and Trefry herself. The play uses the Creel family’s move to Hawkins to tell a story about Henry before the events of the show.
Joe Wright, who directed Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, will direct the first three episodes and executive produce. The company has yet to announce the total number of episodes, a cast or a premiere day within 2028. The Duffers said casting comes next.
What fans can watch or see now
All five seasons of the original Stranger Things and both seasons of Tales From '85 are available on Netflix. Viewers looking for a story set before the main series can still see The First Shadow on Broadway. The production's ticket page lists January 3, 2027, as its final performance date at the Marquis Theatre in New York. The London production is scheduled to close December 27, 2026.
The Broadway production lists $40 rush tickets at the Marquis box office on a first-come, first-served basis. The separate Broadway Direct lottery offers $45 tickets for each performance. It opens at 7 a.m. Eastern the day before the show and closes at 2 p.m. Eastern. Both depend on availability. For anyone deciding whether to see the play before it closes, its story follows Henry Creel in 1959. Netflix has given no indication that seeing it will be a prerequisite for the new series.
