Picture Credit: Netflix
It’s official: the live-action Stranger Things spin-off is real, and it’s a prequel. Netflix used Stranger Things Day to confirm the next chapter of the franchise, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, ending years of vague teases, podcast hints and fan theories. Here’s everything we know so far, along with everything Matt and Ross Duffer have said about the project over the years.
Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure is a live-action prequel set in the 1950s, taking place before both the events of Stranger Things and the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. It’s set to premiere on Netflix in 2028.
The series is co-created by longtime Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry and Matt and Ross Duffer, with Trefry serving as writer and showrunner. BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Darkest Hour) will direct the first three episodes and executive produce. Production will take place in New Mexico.
Everyone involved is stressing that this is a wholly new story, with new characters, heroes, villains, themes and mythology. That said, the links to The First Shadow are hard to ignore.
Who’s behind it?
- Co-creators: Kate Trefry and The Duffer Brothers
- Showrunner/writer: Kate Trefry
- Director: Joe Wright (first three episodes)
- Executive producers: Matt and Ross Duffer (Upside Down Pictures), Shawn Levy (21 Laps Entertainment), Joe Wright, Paul Dichter, Shelley Meals, Andrea Sperling and Pavlina Hatoupis
The Duffers won’t be day-to-day showrunners, which was always the plan given their exclusive overall deal at Paramount, although their Stranger Things work through Upside Down Pictures is carved out of that pact. Shawn Levy, who recently left Netflix for an overall deal at 20th Television, is executive producing but not directing.
Watch the Teaser for Other Worlds
The teaser sets the scene for us: April 19, 1955, in Marion, Nevada. We see an abandoned bike near a restricted area at night, with town lights in the distance and an ominous disturbance in the sky that looks a lot like a wormhole forming. So much for the Duffers being done with kids on bikes.
Eagle-eared fans will also recognize the song. “Sh-Boom” by The Chords previously played in Season 5, Episode 4 of Stranger Things, when Max visits Henry Creel’s memory of Hawkins High.
You can set a reminder on your Netflix through the official page which went up this morning.
What Have the Creators Said?
Matt and Ross Duffer said in a joint statement:
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. 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!
Other Worlds is the first series Trefry has created. She landed her first staff writing job on the mothership series and went on to write The First Shadow. She said:
The Duffer Brothers gave me my first paying job in Hollywood, and it has been a joy and a fever dream ever since. Now, it is my insane honor and privilege to be bringing this new chapter of Stranger Things to life alongside them and our incredible director, Joe Wright. With the support of Netflix and 21 Laps, 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. There are so many more mysteries to explore. Welcome to Other Worlds.
Shawn Levy added:
With Other Worlds, the Duffer Brothers and Kate Trefry craft a new ensemble and adventure that is imbued with the DNA of our flagship series while exploring a new era, setting, and all-new characters, themes, and mythology — the seeds of which may have been planted in Hawkins, but now venture into other worlds of spectacle, action, and emotion.
Jinny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series in the US and Canada, said:
Today, on Stranger Things Day, we’re honored to partner again with Matt and Ross Duffer and Kate Trefry to give fans a new dimension of this universe to step into.
How Does Other Worlds Connect to The First Shadow?
The First Shadow is set in 1959 and follows a teenage Henry Creel in Hawkins, with key events taking place in Rachel, Nevada. With Other Worlds set in 1955, it takes place just a few years before the Nevada experiment seen in the play.
Back in November 2025, Matt Duffer told Variety the spin-off would explain the mysterious rock young Henry finds in a scientist’s briefcase in the Nevada caves, which was first introduced in The First Shadow and later featured in Season 5.
Netflix’s February tapings of The First Shadow saw the play’s Nevada location changed to Marion for the proshot. The filmed version is said to include tweaks aligning it more closely with Season 5.
What the Duffer Brothers Have Previously Teased About the Spin-Off Before Now
The Duffers have been talking about a live-action spin-off for years, though they’ve always been far better at telling us what it isn’t than what it is. Here’s how the hints have stacked up.
2022: “1000% different”
The Duffers first went on the record about a spin-off during an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast in July 2022, shortly after Season 4 dropped. They shut down rumors of an Eleven spin-off or a Steve and Dustin buddy show, saying the new project would be “1000% different” from the flagship series. The connective tissue, they said, would be the show’s storytelling sensibility rather than its characters.
They also revealed that not even Netflix knew the premise at that stage, and that Finn Wolfhard was the only person they’d really told, simply because he guessed it. They were also clear from day one that the plan was to “pass the baton” to a new showrunner.
2025: A different world with “connective tissue”
In the build-up to Season 5, the Duffers told Variety that the live-action follow-up would be set in “a bit of a different world” but would still have “connective tissue” to the original show. They also confirmed they’d be heavily creatively involved, but wouldn’t be showrunners.
Around the same time, Ross Duffer told Deadline that whatever came next wouldn’t be set in the ’80s, with Matt joking they were “probably done” with kids on bikes. A 1950s setting checks out. The bikes, apparently, stay.
January 2026: Henry Creel’s backstory is on the table
The Season 5 press tour gave us the biggest clues yet. As we rounded up in January, Ross Duffer described it as a completely different story with a new location, new actors and new characters, while conceding it “relates in some ways” to the original series. He also told Deadline it’s “not Hopper mentioning Montauk” and “obviously not Holly and the kids,” describing it as something much smaller.
Most tellingly, the brothers told Variety that the larger history around Henry Creel, teased in the finale’s flashback of a young Henry in a cave encountering a wounded scientist and an otherworldly rock, is something the spin-off “is going to delve into,” while stressing it’s a completely different mythology. In hindsight, that was a pretty big hint.
May 2026: New characters, no anthology, no rush
At a live taping of Happy Sad Confused in Los Angeles in May, the Duffers offered their most detailed update to date:
- Totally new characters. The series won’t follow Eleven, Mike, Dustin or any of the Hawkins crew.
- Not an anthology. They shut down Black Mirror-style anthology theories, confirming it follows a set group of characters.
- No Holly sequel. The finale’s basement scene wasn’t setting up a next-generation show. As they joked, if Holly starts seeing strange things, she’d just call her brother and they’d be making Stranger Things again.
- One idea, seven years in the making. The brothers said they’d only ever had one idea for expanding the universe in live-action, and they had it around seven years ago.
- Quality over speed. They stressed they weren’t going to rush it, saying it “has to be awesome or forget it.”
What We’d Previously Heard About a Prequel
While the Duffers kept things vague publicly, we’d been hearing for a while that a prequel was the priority. In our September report, Where Does the Stranger Things Go From Here?, we revealed that there was a push to get the live-action spin-off more actively in the works before the Duffers departed for Paramount. Sources told us some form of prequel was the focus, with Stephen Daldry and Kate Trefry, the creative duo behind the Tony and Olivier-winning stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, spearheading the project.
Today’s announcement confirms the prequel and Trefry’s role at the helm, although it’s Joe Wright, not Daldry, who has been named as director.
When Will Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure Release on Netflix?
Netflix has confirmed that Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure will premiere in 2028. Casting is up next, with filming set to take place in New Mexico and reportedly starting in 2027.
That lines up with our own expectations. Prior to today’s announcement, we didn’t expect the live-action spin-off to arrive until late 2027 or 2028 at the earliest, given the Duffers’ commitments at Paramount and their insistence on not rushing it. We’ll update this post as soon as we hear more, including casting news.