The play set in the world of Stranger Things , which has been talked about since last summer , will finally arrive in London’s West End this year.
It will be titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow and will be set twenty-five years before the events of the Netflix series. The play will be staged at the Phoenix Theatre.
Kate Trefry , screenwriter of the series, wrote the play based on a story by the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne ( His Dark Materials ). Stephen Daldry ( Billy Elliot, The Reader, The Crown ) will direct alongside Justin Martin , while Shawn Levy ‘s 21 Laps will produce alongside Sonia Friedman Productions and Netflix.
The First Shadow will be set in 1959 in Hawkins. Young Jim Hopper’s car doesn’t want to start, Bob Newby’s ( Sean Astin ‘s character) sisterdoesn’t take her radio broadcast seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and leave town. When new student Henry Creel (the future Vecna) arrives in town, his family discovers that a fresh start isn’t so easy and the shadows of the past are very long.
Stephen Daldry spent a year working with master illusionists to develop tricks and special effects for the show. The Duffers stated:
Collaborating with the brilliant Stephen Daldry has been an inspiring experience, and Kate Trefry has written a play that is at times startling, frightening and heartfelt. You will meet new characters you will fall in love with, and others who are very familiar, in a journey into the past that sets the stage for the future of Stranger Things .