The live-action Stranger Things prequel series has its first teaser trailer and a 2028 release window, Netflix has announced.
“Before Hawkins, there was Marion,” reads the tagline. The show is called Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, and it’s from The Duffer Brothers and Kate Trefry.
Before Hawkins, there was Marion.
Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure. A new series only on Netflix. 2028. https://t.co/NvISItwYAF
— Netflix (@netflix) November 6, 2026
The series is a prequel set in the 1950s, before Stranger Things and before the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which explores Henry Creel’s troubled past in Hawkins in 1959. Specifically, the teaser confirms April 19, 1955, in Marion, Nevada. We see a discarded bike outside a fenced off restricted area. “Use of deadly force authorized,” reads the warning sign. The camera pans up to reveal a mystery facility lit up at night, before we move to focus on the sky above.
Golden Globe-winning director Joe Wright is set to direct the first three episodes of the new series, with production to take place in New Mexico. Expect a new era, setting and all-new characters, themes and mythology, Netflix added.
Jinny Howe, Netflix Head of Scripted Series, US & Canada: “Stranger Things has always belonged to the fans, and their passion made it a worldwide phenomenon. 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. Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure takes us to the 1950s with new heroes and all the heart, mystery, and spectacle of the original series. We’re proud to keep building this world with the Duffers, Kate, Shawn Levy, and Joe Wright, and we can’t wait for fans to see what’s next.”
Stranger Things Season 5 Finale Trailer Images
Co-Creators/Executive Producers Matt & Ross Duffer commented: “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. We’re so grateful to our incredible team of collaborators: our showrunner Kate Trefry, who has been in the trenches with us since Season 2 and wrote Stranger Things: The First Shadow; and our director, Joe Wright, a brilliant artist whose work we’ve long admired. We can’t wait for you to see what they’re cooking up. 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: A Stranger Things Adventure is far from the first Stranger Things spinoff we’ve seen from Netflix since the hit show came to an end in January, but it does promise to answer some burning questions left by the end of Season 5.
Warning!Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:
In the Season 5 finale, we see Henry Creel / Vecna finally face his greatest fear: the traumatic memory of the day he was infected by the Mind Flayer and gained his powers. In this scene set inside Henry’s mind, we finally find out what was inside the briefcase that child Henry opens after bludgeoning its previous owner, an unnamed scientist, to death. Inside is a mysterious rock, which glows with an unknown energy before fusing with Henry. This, we understand, is how Henry became one with the Mind Flayer, and sets in motion all the events of Stranger Things that followed.
But what was this rock exactly, and how did it come to be in our world in the first place? An <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/stranger-things-5-episode-8-ending-explained” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>article on Netflix published as Stranger Things came to an end confirms the rock contains Mind Flayer particles, which then possess Henry. “Come find me,” the Mind Flayer beckons. And the dying scientist warns: “It will consume you.”
In a subsequent interview with Variety, Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer teased that the planned spinoff, which we now know to be Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, will explain all — and answer other plot threads left dangling.
“The spinoff is going to delve into that and explain that, and you’re going to understand it,” Matt Duffer said of the briefcase rock. “But it’s a completely different mythology. So it’s not a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that. It’s very fresh and very new, but yes, it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining.”
Stranger Things: The First Shadow Gallery
The briefcase scene is explained in vague terms by Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the canon play that acts as a prequel to the events of the Netflix show. We’ve run through the plot of the play already, but in summary, it confirms that Henry and the scientist are transported to what was then known as Dimension X. When Henry returns, he is much changed, and Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) eventually uses him as part of his experiments in Hawkins National Laboratory.
But even before then, the play tells us of a 1943 United States experiment to turn submarines invisible during World War 2. As part of this, they travel to Dimension X. Perhaps that’s where the mysterious rock originally came from, and how it ended up in our world in the first place.
The Duffers previously described the spinoff as a “clean slate.” “Completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology,” Matt Duffer said, adding: “No common characters.”
While you wait to find out more, check out the Duffer brothers explaining the ambiguity of Eleven’s ending.
Wesley is IGN’s Managing Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
