Netflix has greenlit a live-action “Stranger Things” prequel series set three decades before the original show.
The streaming giant announced Friday that “Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure” is targeted for a 2028 premiere. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer are shepherding the project alongside showrunner Kate Trefry, 33, the longtime series writer who also penned the West End and Broadway stage prequel “The First Shadow.” Acclaimed filmmaker Joe Wright, 53, whose credits include “Atonement” and “Pride & Prejudice,” has signed on to direct the opening three episodes.
The series departs from the familiar 1980s cul-de-sacs of Hawkins, Indiana, transporting viewers instead to 1955 Marian, Nevada. That setting places the narrative before both the flagship show and the stage prequel, opening what the creators describe as uncharted territory for the franchise.
“We’ve been dreaming of Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure for many years now, and to see it become a reality is surreal and exhilarating,” the Duffer brothers shared in an official statement. “It’s Stranger Things, but also thrillingly fresh, with a new setting, new heroes and villains, and new… Actually, we’re not allowed to say any more. Now, on to casting. In the meantime — watch the skies, nerds!”
Trefry, stepping into her first showrunner role, expressed similar enthusiasm about crafting the 1950s adventure.
“We have had the time of our lives returning to all the horror, wonder, and mystery of the flagship, while also telling a wholly new story, one we hope will blow your minds and break your hearts all over again,” she said. “There are so many more mysteries to explore. Welcome to Other Worlds.”
Executive producer Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps production banner will also return to oversee the live-action offshoot, maintaining continuity with the original series’ production infrastructure.
The Duffers have been deliberate about framing what the prequel is not. Matt Duffer clarified earlier this year that while the Nevada setting will address lingering questions, the series stands as its own entity with fresh mythology.
“I don’t want to mislead people in thinking that that’s really what the spinoff is about,” he said in an interview with EW. “It’s going to answer that question, but it’s its own mythology. So it’s very, very different… For people who are frustrated that they don’t know where that scientist came from, how he’s in the cave, what the glowing rock is, at some point, that will be answered for you.”
That “question mark” centers on young Henry Creel’s journey—specifically what he discovered inside Nevada caves, including a mysterious glowing rock, an infected dead scientist, and the source of his telekinetic powers that would eventually transform him into Vecna.
“It is the one thing that we purposely left a bit of a question mark on that theoretically will be answered later down the line,” Ross Duffer explained to EW earlier this year. “But that really was the one tiny little crack in the door that we wanted to leave open.”
The announcement came timed to “Stranger Things Day,” the fictional date when Will Byers first vanished into the Upside Down in the original series.
The creative team’s decision to leap to 1955 followed the completion of “The First Shadow” stage run and the animated bridge series “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85.” Ross Duffer noted that the timeline had begun to feel constraining without a more dramatic expansion.
“To be able to move forward, we have to build out a new mythology because otherwise we’re just gonna keep finding these little narrow gaps and it’s just gonna get narrower and narrower and more forced,” he added. “So the goal is to break it wide open and do something very new and very different.”
Casting for “Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure” is expected to begin shortly ahead of production.