2
Credit: NetflixIt’s no stretch to suggest that Stranger Things (2016) is on track to become bigger than Star Wars. Netflix’s beloved sci-fi franchise continues to expand, while Disney and Lucasfilm’s most prized possession continues to disappoint with its underwhelming Disney+ content.
Despite significant gaps between seasons, Stranger Things has gone from strength to strength over the years. But it’s fair to say that the explosive Season 4 put the franchise well and truly back on the map while leaving fans hungry for the next chapter.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Star Teases Will and Vecna’s Upcoming Battle In Season 5
Unfortunately, Stranger Things Season 5 is yet to get a release window, let alone a release date. Still, it’s shaping up to be one of the most highly anticipated seasons of any television show, and the delays only heighten that anticipation.
Fortunately, though, Season 5 is finally back in the writer’s room following delays caused by the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strikes. The bad news is that this development doesn’t mean it’s likely to arrive on Netflix sooner than currently planned.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Reveals First Look at Replacement Actors
Fans are finally coming to terms with the fact that the fifth and final season of the Netflix series is likely a couple of years away, which has at least been made easier by all the other Stranger Things activity outside the main flagship series, from spinoffs to stage plays.
But at least we won’t have to make do with just morsels and titbits of information for Season 5 while we wait. The upcoming stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow (2023) is important to fully understanding the concluding chapter in the series, making it the first part of Season 5. And it’s finally here.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Star Becomes Supergirl for DCU Reboot
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a prequel to Stranger Things, taking place in 1959 and featuring younger versions of the adult characters from the flagship Netflix series: Joyce Maldonado (Byers), Jim Hopper, Henry Creel, Bob Newby, and Dr. Martin Brenner.
The official cast list for the production was revealed in September.
Per the official website, here’s the synopsis for The First Shadow:
BEFORE THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN…
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.
Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story — and may hold the key to the end.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Is Temporarily Replacing Its Main Character Lineup
Yesterday, the official X/Twitter account for the play revealed the name of the first act just hours before the early November 17 premiere in London’s Phoenix Theater.
Check out the tweet below:
Act 1. Chapter 1. The girl from nowhere. See you tonight at first preview nerds. #StrangerThingsOnStage
Act 1. Chapter 1. The girl from nowhere.
See you tonight at first preview nerds. #StrangerThingsOnStage pic.twitter.com/Ax2ZLYHPX9— Stranger Things On Stage (@STOnStage) November 17, 2023
An accompanying production still also shows the young Henry Creel (Louis McCartney) standing opposite a Demogorgon against an ominous backdrop:
Henry, meet Demogorgon. FIRST LOOK at #StrangerThingsOnStage.: Manuel Harlan
Henry, meet Demogorgon.
FIRST LOOK at #StrangerThingsOnStage. 🙌
📸: Manuel Harlan pic.twitter.com/BxNtOnXNnw
— Stranger Things On Stage (@STOnStage) November 17, 2023
Recently, Matt Duffer described the production as a “mega episode” of the Netflix series, and writer Kate Trefry said that the story of The First Shadow is important to gaining “a deeper understanding” of Stranger Things Season 5.
At the recent Motor City Comic Con, David Harbour (Jim Hopper) reiterated that Season 5 will be the final season and said it has a “real” ending.
Check out the trailer for The First Shadow below:
Related: Despite Some Bad News, ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Gets Exciting Update
While it appears in this new teaser, it remains to be seen if the Demogorgon will show up in The First Shadow; however, given Henry Creel’s fate with the Upside Down, we know the play will tie into the Stranger Things series in a major way, which the trailer also implies.
In fact, while we’re on the subject of monsters from the Upside Down, let’s rank all the main otherworldly antagonists from Stranger Things seasons 1 — 4.
Stranger Things Monsters Ranked
5. The Shadow Monster/Mind Flayer — Season 3
Stranger Things Season 3 might be the weirdest of all four seasons, as it leans heavily into adolescent drama with its teenage characters (think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), using a mall that’s oozing with the ’80s as the backdrop for most of the drama and horror.
Beneath the mall, however, something lurks; a grotesque creature inspired by the incredibly gory ’80s horror movie The Blob (1988). Known as the The Shadow Monster/Mind Flayer, the vile creature winds up possessing the already troubled Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery).
Billy should be grateful, though, as it melts its other victims, using them to grow until it’s tentacles galore — a massive, uninspired exaggeration and literal melting pot of ’80s creature features, taking as big a page out of John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) as it does The Blob.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Could Recast Eleven This Year
4. The Shadow Monster/Mind Flayer — Season 2
Before it became a physical, blob-like monstrosity in Hawkins, the Shadow Monster/Mind Flayer was first introduced in Season 2 as a powerful, all-seeing, six-legged entity made up of shadows and smoke that resides in the Upside Down.
And long before it possessed Billy Hargrove, it had a grip on young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) a’ la The Exorcist (1973). There’s an incredible battle between Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in the Season 2 finale, however, we think this version of the Mind Flayer was criminally underused, and the more corporeal Season 3 version feels like a bit of a cop-out.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Is Recasting Three of Its Main Characters
3. Demogorgon “Dogs” — Season 2
After introducing the Demogorgon in Season 1, the two-legged, humanoid beast whose head looks like the world’s deadliest flower, there’s no other way to go but down. Quite literally, in fact, as in a shorter, four-legged version of the creature aptly nicknamed the “Demodog.”
The Demodogs draw inspiration from the Terror Dogs from Ghostbusters (1984), a film Season 2 also pays homage to by having Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Will Byers, and Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) dress up as Ghostbusters (which is probably how Wolfhard ended up in the Ghostbusters franchise).
There are whiffs of Aliens (1986) with the Demodogs, too, the sci-fi horror sequel that also multiplies and, to an extent, de-anthropomorphises the main otherworldly antagonist from its 1979 predecessor. The Demodogs are pretty scary, but not as much as their evolutionary predecessor — even if they did eat Poor Bob Newby (Sean Astin).
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Is Bringing Back a Fan-Favorite Character
2. Demogorgon — Season 1 and Season 4
The Demogorgon might be heavily inspired by the Xenomorph from the Alien movies (for starters, its face looks like an open face-hugger egg and it lays little nasty creatures inside its victims), with a hint of the creature from the Predator movies thrown in for good measure (its face also resembles those overly-extending mandibles of the hunter-warrior), but it’s oddly an original design in its own right.
Though only a face a mother could love, the Demogorgon has become the face of the Stranger Things franchise (of the darker side, that is). It’s also a pretty terrifying entity and is seemingly as unstoppable as the Xenomorph. Unless, of course, you have a girl with telekinetic abilities at your disposal. Or David Harbour with a giant sword.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Has Revealed 3 Characters Likely to Die in Season 5
1. Vecna — Season 4
The main antagonist of Stranger Things Season 4 goes by many names. In his human life, he was known as Henry Creel, before being given the name “One” in the Hawkins lab. But after massacring his fellow telepathic inmates, Henry was inadvertently “banished” to the Upside Down by Eleven, where he would become the “dark wizard” known as Vecna.
Jamie Campbell Bower’s Vecna/Henry Creel/One is the personification of the Upside Down; a face to the hellish shadow dimension that’s been trying to consume Hawkins for years. There are hints of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) all over the hideously disfigured Vecna, too, from his razor-clawed hand to the fact he hunts and kills teens in their minds.
Stranger Things Season 4
As per Netflix, here’s the official synopsis for Stranger Things Season 4:
It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time – and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.
Season 4 stars Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), David Harbour (Jim Hopper), Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven/Jane Hopper), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), Joseph Quinn (Eddie Munson), Paul Reiser (Dr. Sam Owens), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Matthew Modine (Papa/Martin Brenner), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers), and Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna/One/Henry Creel).
Stranger Things seasons 1 — 4 are streaming on Netflix.
The First Shadow will officially open in London’s Phoenix Theater on December 14, 2023.
Have you bought your tickets for The First Shadow yet? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!