Lost in the night, a lonely bicycle rests before a restricted area as The Chords’ 1950s hit Sh-Boom plays. Suddenly, an ominous, thunderous boom splits the sky. This scene opens the first teaser for the newly announced Stranger Things live-action prequel.
Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure will stream in 2028. The story takes place in 1955, 28 years before the characters in Netflix’s sci-fi series began their adventures in Hawkins.
Since debuting in 2016, Stranger Things has generated 1.5-billion views across five seasons and won more than 70 awards worldwide, including 13 Emmys. Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of the show, developed the prequel with longtime franchise writer Kate Trefry.
“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,” say the Duffer brothers. “Now, on to casting. In the meantime — watch the skies, nerds.”
Other Worlds trades the 1980s for the 1950s. The original series filled Hawkins with Dungeons & Dragons, arcade games, cassette players, shopping malls and songs by Kate Bush and Metallica. Opening the new teaser with Sh-Boom winds that cultural clock back three decades. The prequel’s Nevada setting, Marion, now has a different era to mine for the music, technology and pop culture that helped make Hawkins feel distinct.
Trefry serves as showrunner, co-creator and writer. She also wrote The First Shadow, a stage play set in Hawkins in 1959 that explores the teenage years of Henry Creel, who later becomes the supernatural villain Vecna.
The two prequels take different approaches to the franchise’s past. The First Shadow digs deeper into a character and town already central to Stranger Things. Other Worlds moves four years further into the past and leaves Hawkins behind, giving the franchise space to build a supernatural story around people audiences have never met.
Production will take place in New Mexico, although Netflix has yet to announce the cast. BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Joe Wright will direct the first three episodes and serve as an executive producer. His directing credits include Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Darkest Hour.
According to Trefry, the prequel will return to the horror, wonder and mystery of the original series while telling a new story. She says: “There are so many more mysteries to explore.”
Executive producer Shawn Levy says some of the new mythology may have roots in Hawkins, but will extend into what he describes as other worlds of spectacle, action and emotion.
Beyond the fifth and final season of the original show, the franchise has continued expanding into other stories. Tales From ’85 returned to Hawkins and its familiar characters in an animated supernatural mystery.
The biggest break comes with the cast. Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and the rest of the Hawkins group are no longer at the centre of the story. Other Worlds will put a new ensemble at the heart of the live-action franchise.
The answers are still two years away. Until Other Worlds arrives in 2028, Netflix subscribers can revisit or discover the original live-action story. Production began in 2015, with the final season arriving 10 years later, leaving 42 episodes and almost 42 hours of Hawkins, monsters, government experiments and the Upside Down.
* Watch the ‘Other Worlds’ trailer here.
* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and deputy editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky at @jas2bann.