A Stranger Things Play About Young Hopper Will Open in London's West End This Year

Stranger Things’ fifth season will be its last, but the Upside Down isn’t done telling its stories. Before Season 5 drops on Netflix sometime in 2024, a Stranger Things play will be gracing the stage of the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End.

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The Duffer Brothers still have stories to tell about Indiana’s haunting town of Hawkins, and one of the first non-TV mediums they’ll be exploring is theater. The stage play, titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow, will have its world premiere later this year at West End.

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>pFans are already dreading the moment they have to say goodbye to the Hawkins gang, but the upcoming stage play might just satisfy their thirst for all things Stranger Things. The play will enter uncharted territory by diving into the backstories of the show’s second-most beloved characters—the adults.>pSet in Hawkins in 1959, The First Shadow will follow a young Jim Hopper before tragedy struck him down, a young Joyce Maldonado (not yet Byers) eager to leave the town behind, and a young Bob Newsby whose sister won’t take his radio show seriously. It all seems like a small town’s slice of life—until a new student named Henry Creel arrives in town with his family in tow. And soon, chaos ensues.>pIf you know, you know.>pFans of the show will recognize the haunting name of Henry Creel as the original human identity of the Upside Down’s big bad villain, Vecna. Before he was a monster, he was a man, and it looks like the stage play is going to further dissect how these random Hawkins residents are tied together.>pBefore Season 5 concludes the Hawkins gang’s fight against Vecna, fans can take a step back and dive into the past to learn all about the origins of the town’s nightmares. As the stage play’s synopsis teased, the past might just be the key to Hawkins’ future.>pProduced by Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions, The First Shadow was written by the show’s writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry based on a story by the Duffer brothers, Trefry, and Jack Thorne. Tony-winning director Stephen Daldry will be directing the production alongside Justin Martin.>p