A stage adaptation of Stranger Things is coming to the UK later this year, and producers have revealed it will be a prequel to the series. Set more than 20 years before the events of Netflix’s hit sci-fi drama, London’s West End production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow will follow existing characters Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Henry Creel when they were younger.
The play is written by Stranger Things writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry and directed by The Crown’s Stephen Daldry, with co-director Prima Facie’s Justin Martin. On Wednesday (March 1), the producers said the new story will open in 1959 in Hawkins as a young Hopper’s car fails to start, Newby’s sister does not take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado tries to graduate and leave.
Teasing the play, the producers said new student Creel arrives in Hawkins, and his family find “a fresh start isn’t so easy and the shadows of the past have a very long reach,” as the beginning of Stranger Things “may hold the key to the end”. Matt and Ross Duffer, who are the creators, directors and executive producers of the Netflix series, said: “You 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.
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“We’re dying to tell you more about the story but won’t – it’s more fun to discover it for yourself. Can’t wait to see you nerds in London.”
It is produced by Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions – who produced the hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – with the Duffer Brothers acting as creative producers. During the four seasons of the Netflix series, police chief Hopper has been played by David Harbour, Sean Astin took on the role of Radioshack manager Newby and Jamie Campbell Bower and Raphael Luce portrayed Creel.
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Details of when tickets for Stranger Things: The First Shadow will go on sale in the spring will be announced next month. Fans can register for ticket access to the play – which is based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne and Trefry – here www.strangerthingsonstage.com.
The play will open in late 2023 at the Phoenix Theatre in London.
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