Stranger Things Stage Play Is A Prequel Story

We’ve known for some time that Netflix wants to make a stage play out of Stranger Things, but we figured it would be some kind of musical adaption of the story in the show. That is, after all, what is traditionally done, and Disney has done it repeatedly with its IP. Instead, we’re getting thrown a bit of a curve: Stranger Things: The First Shadow (announced today) is set in 1959, no songs, with teenage versions of the adult characters seen in the 80s-set series. Yes, it’s the P-word again.

This is great news. It’s not that we’re burning to find out what happens before what happens (when are we ever). It’s that if they’re burning the “prequel” idea on a play, that means we very likely WON’T have to endure it as a TV spinoff. That is a very good thing!

Even better: this won’t be a Disney+ Marvel situation where everything is connected and the play is required information to understand why Character X is Purple Now. It’s totally extraneous. The basic synopsis has been released and the only valuable bit of information is that Joyce’s maiden name is “Maldonado.”

“Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach.”

Looks like we can safely skip this, and we’d have to anyway: the play opens in London later this year, not the US.