The Duffer Brothers are leaving Easter eggs for the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” in suitably strange places, like the upcoming stage play “The First Shadow.”
The teaser for the upcoming West End production hints that “the beginning of the ‘Stranger Things’ story might hold the key to what comes next.” A series of clips from the first season of the hit Netflix series, including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) being experimented on, are also part of the teaser footage.
The official synopsis reads for the stage play reads: “Hawkins, 1959, a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy … and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is based on an original story by series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, plus Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry. The stage play, which is set 25 years before the Netflix series, will be co-directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin.
Set designer Miriam Buether, costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting designer Jon Clark, sound designer Paul Arditti, movement director Coral Messam, hair and make-up desingers Campbell Young Associates, video designer 59 Productions, and illusions design and visual effects by Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher are behind the production.
“The First Shadow” will begin performances November 17 at London’s Phoenix Theater. However, there have been no casting announcements nor international touring plans made public as of yet.
The play is part of The Duffer Brothers’ Upside Down Pictures productions, which was announced in July 2022. According to the showrunners, Upside Down Pictures will “aim to create the kind of stories that inspired the Duffers growing up, stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism.”
In addition to stage play “First Shadow,” a live-action “Stranger Things” spin-off series based on an original idea by The Duffer Brothers is also in the works.
“Stranger Things” Season 5, guest starring Linda Hamilton, will definitely be an emotional send-off to the series, as the Duffers previously teased. “[For] two hours, we pitched the full season to Netflix. We did get our executives to cry, which I thought was a good sign,” Matt Duffer said during a Netflix SAG FYC event. “The only other time I’ve seen them cry is like, budget meetings.”
Ross Duffer added, “We have so many characters now, most who are still living. It’s important to wrap up those arcs as a lot of these characters have been growing since Season 1. So it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up these loose ends and doing our final reveals. … The way we see it, is kind of a culmination of all the seasons, so it’s sort of got a little bit from each. I think that what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a little bit, in sort of the tone of 1.”
The final season does not yet have an official release date, but is believed to be arriving sometime in 2024.
The teaser for the upcoming West End production hints that “the beginning of the ‘Stranger Things’ story might hold the key to what comes next.” A series of clips from the first season of the hit Netflix series, including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) being experimented on, are also part of the teaser footage.
The official synopsis reads for the stage play reads: “Hawkins, 1959, a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy … and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is based on an original story by series creators Matt and Ross Duffer, plus Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry. The stage play, which is set 25 years before the Netflix series, will be co-directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin.
Set designer Miriam Buether, costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting designer Jon Clark, sound designer Paul Arditti, movement director Coral Messam, hair and make-up desingers Campbell Young Associates, video designer 59 Productions, and illusions design and visual effects by Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher are behind the production.
“The First Shadow” will begin performances November 17 at London’s Phoenix Theater. However, there have been no casting announcements nor international touring plans made public as of yet.
The play is part of The Duffer Brothers’ Upside Down Pictures productions, which was announced in July 2022. According to the showrunners, Upside Down Pictures will “aim to create the kind of stories that inspired the Duffers growing up, stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism.”
In addition to stage play “First Shadow,” a live-action “Stranger Things” spin-off series based on an original idea by The Duffer Brothers is also in the works.
“Stranger Things” Season 5, guest starring Linda Hamilton, will definitely be an emotional send-off to the series, as the Duffers previously teased. “[For] two hours, we pitched the full season to Netflix. We did get our executives to cry, which I thought was a good sign,” Matt Duffer said during a Netflix SAG FYC event. “The only other time I’ve seen them cry is like, budget meetings.”
Ross Duffer added, “We have so many characters now, most who are still living. It’s important to wrap up those arcs as a lot of these characters have been growing since Season 1. So it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up these loose ends and doing our final reveals. … The way we see it, is kind of a culmination of all the seasons, so it’s sort of got a little bit from each. I think that what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a little bit, in sort of the tone of 1.”
The final season does not yet have an official release date, but is believed to be arriving sometime in 2024.
#StrangerThingsOnStage will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and it might hold the key to what comes next…pic.twitter.com/3y9waLiG9j
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 5, 2023