Netflix is taking its subscribers inside the production and opening of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” the successful London (and now Broadway) play that serves as a prequel to the streaming service’s immensely popular sci-fi series.
In conjunction with the play’s long-awaited Broadway debut, Netflix has announced “Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a documentary that will provide viewers special behind-the-scenes access to the opening West End production of its eponymous play and will feature interviews with its cast, crew and creators. Directed by Jon Halperin, the documentary will premiere Tuesday, April 15, on Netflix.
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” was originally announced in 2022 and made its West End debut over a year later at London’s Phoenix Theater in December 2023. In 2024, it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play and for Best Set Design. On Thursday, the show held its first Broadway preview performance at New York City’s Marquis Theatre.
The play’s official Broadway run is set to open on April 22.
Based on an original idea by “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer, “Adolescence” co-creator Jack Thorne and “Stranger Things” writer Kate Trefry, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” takes place in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1959. It follows the Creel family as they try to find a fresh start in the small town only for teenage son Henry (later known as Vecna and played as an adult in the Netflix series by Jamie Campbell Bower) to gradually realize that the horrors suddenly unfolding throughout Hawkins are connected to him.
As the Duffer Brothers say in the trailer for “Behind the Curtain” about the play’s story, “It’s the origin of ‘Stranger Things.’ It’s the origin of the Upside Down.” The play is written by Trefry and its Broadway run is directed, as was its West End production, by Stephen Daldry.
The release of “Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” as well as the Broadway expansion of its central play, come the same year Netflix is expected to release the highly anticipated fifth and final season of “Stranger Things.” Coming three years after its acclaimed, super-sized fourth season, its fifth batch of episodes promises to bring the series’ reality-bending sci-fi story to a final — likely highly emotional — conclusion.
“Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow” begins streaming Tuesday, April 15, exclusively on Netflix. You can watch the full trailer in the video above.
