‘Stranger Things’ Play ‘The First Shadow’ Plots Move to Broadway

Three months after Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened in London, the stage play based on the hit Netflix series is already plotting its move to Broadway.

According to Broadway World, casting notices for the Broadway run of the acclaimed play have already been posted, with an estimated opening date sometime in 2025. Like the London production, Stephen Daldry is listed as director of the New York City staging.

The prequel play — written by Kate Trefry and based on an original story by Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers — opened in December 2023 at London’s Phoenix Theatre to better reviews than the past few seasons of the Netflix sci-fi drama.

The First Shadow serves as an origin story for what eventually take place in Hawkins, Indiana, with the play set in 1959 and featuring younger versions of Stranger Things characters like Jim Hopper, Joyce Maldonado, Henry Creel, Dr. Brenner, Bob Newby and other Hawkins denizens.
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In a recent interview with Deadline, Louis McCartney, who plays Henry Creel in the stage production, talked about the possibility of The First Shadow crossing the Atlantic. “Broadway is an exciting conversation,” McCartney said. “Obviously everybody’s talking about it, and I’d be more than chuffed to do it. But the thing is, the future holds a million possibilities. And there’s some that I can’t decide on. There’s things that the third party will decide. And I’m just kind of open to everything.”

In January, the Duffer brothers revealed that production on the fifth and final season of Stranger Things — which was impacted by both the writers and actors strikes — was back underway.