Netflix is getting into the theater world.
The streaming service has announced plans to bring its biggest hit, Stranger Things, to London’s West End later this year. Stranger Things: The First Shadow will be a prequel of sorts to the supernatural thriller, with many of the same characters.
“Expanding our world beyond the TV series is a thrilling experience,” said Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of the show in a press release. “Bringing this new Stranger Things story to the stage, with live audiences, is a prospect that we find enormously exciting, and we are delighted that a city with such a rich theater culture as London will receive the world premiere of our new story. We can’t wait to share it with you.”
Set in 1959 in Hawkins, Ind., the primary setting of the show, the play will focus on familiar characters, including future sheriff Jim Hopper, future stressed mother Joyce Byers, ill-fated Bob Newby, and soon-to-be-Vecna Henry Creel.
“Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries,” Netflix said in describing the play’s plot. “Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously, and Joyce just wants to get out as soon as she can. When new student Henry Creel and his family arrive, they find a fresh start isn’t that easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”
The streamer also hints that the play might hold some clues to the final season of the pop-culture-infused show, saying it will “take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story—and to the beginning of the end.”
Tickets for the play will go on sale this spring, with more details about a precise premiere date to come. Fans can pre-register for priority access now. The play is not expected to impact the timeline for the show’s fifth and final season, which likely won’t debut until at least 2024.
