Netflix has announced that a stage adaptation of the hit sci-fi series Stranger Things called The First Shadow will open in the West End this year. It will be Netflix’s first live stage production, directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) with co-direction by Justin Martin (Prima Facie).
Matt and Ross Duffer, creators, directors and producers of the Netflix show, revealed that audiences will “meet endearing new characters, as well as very familiar ones, on a journey into the past that sets the groundwork for the future of Stranger Things”. They teased that The First Shadow “may hold the key to the end” of the Stranger Things story.
Beloved characters, including a young Hopper, Joyce, and Bob, the latter of which was killed in the penultimate episode of season two, will appear onstage.
Based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Kate Trefry, and Jack Thorne (writer of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), the play takes place in the same fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. Contrary to what audiences have seen on the small screen, the production will be set in 1959, over two decades before the series’ beginning.
The play joins an emerging host of in-person events inspired by Netflix creations. In 2022, the interactive event ‘Stranger Things: The Experience’ opened in London, with locations in previous years including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco.
Tickets for Stranger Things: The First Shadow are expected to go on sale in spring, with the show officially opening in autumn.
Words by Violeta Paez
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