Picture Credits: Netflix
Netflix’s live-action Stranger Things prequel series, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, now has updated filming dates. Production is currently penciled in to run from mid-March 2027 through mid-August 2027 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we’re told following its big reveal last week during Stranger Things day, and the show is filming under the working title Project Marion, and more recently, it’s new codename Coolidge.
Last week, Netflix finally lifted the lid on the long-gestating spin-off, confirming that Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure is set to premiere in 2028. Co-created by Kate Trefry alongside Matt and Ross Duffer (who are currently working on their Paramount movie), the series heads back to 1955 and the town of Marion, Nevada, putting it decades ahead of both the flagship series and the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
At the time of the announcement, all we knew was that filming would take place in New Mexico at some point in 2027. Now, thanks to the latest production listings, we’ve got a much clearer picture of when cameras will roll.
When Will Other Worlds Start Filming?
According to the latest intel, Other Worlds is now expected to film from mid-March 2027 to mid-August 2027, giving the production roughly five months in front of the cameras.
That’s a shift from earlier plans. Back in July, when we rounded up the new movies and series filming for Netflix in summer and early fall 2026, Project Marion was slated to begin shooting in Albuquerque toward the end of 2026. At the time, we didn’t even know this was the Stranger Things spin-off as what we’d heard didn’t have any codename. Now we do, though, and the start date has been pushed into spring 2027.
As always with production schedules, these dates are subject to change.
What Are the Codenames for Other Worlds?
Like the flagship series before it, the Stranger Things prequel has gone through a few names on its way to production:
- Project Marion: the current production working title
- Coolidge: an alternative codename the show has also been known by
- Untitled Stranger Things Spin-Off: the placeholder used during development
Project Marion is a fairly transparent nod for anyone who’s seen the teaser. It’s named after Marion, Nevada, the 1950s town where the series takes place. In hindsight, it was hiding in plain sight on production listings for months.
Where Will Other Worlds Film?
The series will shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That makes a lot of sense: the region’s desert landscapes can easily double for 1950s Nevada, and Netflix runs its own studio hub in Albuquerque called Netflix Studios Albuquerque (there’s even a neat page on the website with locations that could be used).
Picture Credit: Netflix
As you may know too, fans surfaced what they believed was Matt Duffer’s Pinterest account which features a “Spinoff” board which features a lot of 1950s snaps and a few that look remarkably similar to that link we’ve shared above but we’re digressing!
It’s also familiar ground for the franchise. Stranger Things 4 filmed portions of its California and Nina Project storylines in New Mexico.
More recently, Upside Down Pictures’ first non-Stranger Things series, The Boroughs, also called Albuquerque home. It filmed at Netflix’s studio hub and on location around Albuquerque and Santa Fe, with Netflix building the show’s midcentury retirement community from scratch on its Albuquerque backlot. That shoot ran for roughly five months, from September 2024 to February 2025, which is almost exactly the window Other Worlds has been given.
Who’s Working on Other Worlds?
The production listing also confirms several of the key creatives working on the series behind the scenes:
- Kate Trefry: creator, executive producer, showrunner, and writer of the pilot
- Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer: creators and executive producers
- Joe Wright: executive producer and director of episodes 101 to 103, including the pilot
- Shawn Levy, Paul Dichter, Shelley Meals, and Andrea Sperling: executive producers
- Pavlina Hatoupis: executive producer and line producer
- Carmen Cuba: casting director
- Richard Styles: first assistant director
Carmen Cuba’s involvement is particularly notable. She’s been the casting director on Stranger Things since the very beginning, which is how we got the original Hawkins gang. With filming now set for March, expect casting news for Other Worlds to start trickling out over the coming months.
The series is produced by the Duffers’ Upside Down Pictures and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment.
How Have Fans Reacted to the Other Worlds Teaser?
If anyone at Netflix was worried that interest in Hawkins (or Marion, as it were) would fade once the flagship series wrapped up, last week’s announcement should put those fears to rest. The short teaser, which dropped on Stranger Things Day, sent fans straight into detective mode. They picked apart the April 1955 date stamp, the abandoned bike by the restricted zone, the wormhole-like anomaly in the sky, and the return of “Sh-Boom” from Season 5. Over on the official Stranger Things Instagram, the fancasting has already started, with one particularly popular suggestion being Joe Keery playing Steve Harrington’s grandfather.
Not everyone’s on board, of course. A noticeable chunk of the replies accused Netflix of milking the franchise, which isn’t surprising given how many spin-offs, stage shows, and animated projects have arrived in the last couple of years. Still, the sheer volume of conversation shows that Stranger Things still has plenty of juice left in it nearly a year on from the finale, contradicting our take from this summer.
And then there are the Conformity Gate faithful. For the uninitiated, Conformity Gate was the viral theory that the Season 5 finale’s happy epilogue was a Vecna-made illusion, and that a secret “real” ending was coming. The theory famously fizzled when nothing dropped on January 7, and cast members like Jamie Campbell Bower have since dismissed it. That hasn’t stopped some die-hards from reading the Other Worlds teaser as yet another breadcrumb pointing to a missing episode. We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the only new Stranger Things on the horizon is set 30 years earlier.
What Does This Mean for the Other Worlds Release Date?
Netflix has committed to a 2028 premiere, and a mid-August 2027 wrap keeps that firmly on track.
However, given the creature, alien, and supernatural elements involved, Other Worlds will almost certainly need a hefty post-production period for visual effects. For that reason, we’d expect the series to land in the second half of 2028 rather than early in the year.
We’ll keep tracking the production as it heads toward its March start date. Keep it locked to What’s on Netflix for the latest on Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure.