Netflix will release a recorded version of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the franchise’s live stage show which includes important backstory for Henry Creel.
As reported by Collider, Netflix is expected to film the show this week with its original Broadway cast. A release date for the filmed version has not yet been announced.
Fans have recognized Stranger Things: The First Shadow as an important chapter of lore within the franchise, as it answers questions about Henry Creel, AKA the series’ key villain Vecna, that some had expected from its divisive finale — and then from within the series’ phantom extra episode that some fans incorrectly believed would follow.
A prequel to the main Stranger Things TV series, set during Henry Creel’s teenage years, The First Shadow shows the growth of Creel’s psychokinetic powers and finally reveals their true origin. Audiences also get to see the proto-villain at school with some other familiar faces, Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers (then Maldonado).
For fans, The First Shadow is a key part of the main series’ story, so it makes sense that Netflix is now filming it for a wider audience who can’t easily get to its Broadway or West End productions. Will its lore also help calm those who still feel the TV series’ final episode (and wider final season) didn’t do everything they wanted? Well, that remains to be seen.
The First Shadow originally launched in London in 2023, several years before Stranger Things ended, but was always planned to tell a story that dovetailed into the main show. Its script was written by series writer Kate Trefrey, who worked on the plot with Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer, as well as Adolescence and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne.
The play also features the character of Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner, whose TV actor Matthew Modine recently said he disliked the series’ finale and hoped “for the fans” that the conspiracy theory around a secret final-final episode was actually true. (It is not.)
“Stranger Things was a generational event that barreled into a series finale with almost impossible expectations surrounding it,” IGN wrote in our review of the Stranger Things series finale. “The Duffers certainly evolved into the successful blockbuster directors they so admired in their childhoods, but their enduring legacy will be mostly doing right by a cast of characters who beguiled the globe.”
While the main series may have ended, there’s still plenty more Stranger Things to come as well as The First Shadow. The Duffer Brothers are now working on a new live-action TV spin-off with fresh characters, and we’ve already got our first look at Stranger Things ’85, an animated series showing further adventures with the original gang while they were younger.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
