Between the stage and his return to the screen, Hawkins is treated to professional shots.
Netflix is filming the Broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow this week for a future streaming release. The shoot brings a theatrical version of the “Stranger Things” universe to streaming audiences and captures the show’s original Broadway company in its current form.
To accommodate filming, producers Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions canceled performances from February 10th to February 14th. The play will resume its regular performance schedule on February 15th. A release date for the movie version has not been set.
Leading the Broadway cast is Tony Award nominee Louis McCartney, who returns to the lead role after playing Henry Creel in London’s West End. A new ensemble will take over production in late March, with Victor de Paula Rocha joining the cast as Henry Creel, Ayana Simon as Patti Newby, Thea Grant as Joyce Maldonado, Juan Carlos as Bob Newby, and Matthew Eric White as James Hopper Jr.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theater on April 22, 2025, following its West End premiere in December 2023. After Netflix’s release of the final season of Stranger Things, interest in the show increased significantly, making it one of Broadway’s highest-grossing shows, recently grossing around $1.4 million.
The play, written by Kate Treffry and based on an original story by the Duffer brothers, Jack Thorne and Treffry, serves as a standalone prequel rooted in the hit series’ mythology. Set in Hawkins, Indiana in 1959, the story revolves around teenager Henry Creel, whose family moves in search of a new start. As disturbing events ripple through the town, Henry begins to grapple with the terrifying possibility that he is under the control of darkness.
The film explores the early lives of characters familiar to fans of the series, while laying the groundwork for direct connections to the events of the TV show, including the fifth and final season.
Directed by Stephen Daldry and co-directed by Justin Martin, the play features a cast of 34 and expansive set art that blends practical effects with cinematic storytelling. The Duffer Brothers will serve as creative producers, and 21 Laps Entertainment, led by Shawn Levy, will serve as associate producer.
Netflix previously documented the stage production of “Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” which was released in April 2025.
With cameras now rolling inside the Marquis Theater, the Broadway version of “Stranger Things” is poised to continue long after the lights go down, giving fans a front-row seat to the Upside Down with no Playbill required.
