The Duffer Brothers are dropping Easter eggs for the fifth and final season of “Stranger Things” in suitably strange places, like the upcoming stage show “The First Shadow.”
The teaser for the upcoming West End production suggests that “the beginning of the ‘Stranger Things’ story could hold the key to what comes next.” A number 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 for the play reads: “Hawkins, 1959, an ordinary town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take her radio show seriously, and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate high school and get out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family discovers that a new beginning is not so easy … and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.
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“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, set 25 years before the Netflix series, will be co-directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin.
Production Designer Miriam Buether, Costume Designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Lighting Designer Jon Clark, Sound Designer Paul Arditti, Motion Director Coral Messam, Hair and Makeup Campbell Young Associates, Video Designer 59 Productions, and illusions and visual effects by Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher is behind the production.
“The First Shadow” will begin performances on November 17 at the Phoenix Theater in London. However, no casting announcements or international tour plans have yet been made public.
The show 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 in that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where the great show coexists with the intimate work of the character, where the heart wins over cynicism.
In addition to the 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.
Season 5 of “Stranger Things,” starring Linda Hamilton, is sure to be an emotional sendoff to the series, as the Duffers previously teased. “(For) two hours, we pitched the entire season to Netflix. We made our executives 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 of whom are still alive. It’s important to wrap up those arcs as many of these characters have grown up since season one. So it’s a balancing act between giving them time to complete their character arcs and also tying up those loose ends and making our final reveals. … The way we look at it, it’s kind of a culmination of all the seasons, so it took a little bit from each one. I think what we’re trying to do is go back to the beginning a bit, sort of in a 1″ tone.
The final season doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it’s believed to arrive in 2024.
