Netflix announces Stranger Things prequel Other Worlds, set in 1955 Nevada for 2028

The announcement

Netflix announced on Friday, 6 November 2026, that it is developing Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, a live-action spinoff due in 2028. The reveal came on Stranger Things Day, the date fans mark because Will Byers went missing in Hawkins, Indiana, on 6 November 1983, the event that sets the original series in motion. Netflix describes the show as a prequel set in the 1950s, before both the main series and the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. No cast has been announced and the plot remains undisclosed, so the new characters and threats are still unknown. Filming is due to take place in New Mexico once the cast is complete.

Setting and teaser

Netflix posted a teaser on its official Instagram profile. It opens on an abandoned bicycle beside a 1950s-style radio, with static breaking into the audio. The camera pans to a sign reading "restricted area", then to grey clouds that a burst of lightning splits apart. On screen, the text reads "April 19, 1955. Marion, Nevada." before the tagline "Before Hawkins, there was Marion." The show therefore moves the story from Hawkins, Indiana, to the fictional town of Marion, Nevada, decades before the 1980s setting of the original series. It also predates The First Shadow, which sources place in Hawkins in 1959 and which traces the origins of Henry Creel, later the antagonist Vecna.

Creative team

Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of the original series, return as co-creators of the spinoff. Kate Trefry, a longtime Stranger Things writer who scripted The First Shadow, will serve as co-creator, showrunner and writer. Joe Wright, the British director of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, will direct the first three episodes. Shawn Levy will again act as an executive producer through the production company 21 Laps, according to La Razón. In a joint statement, the brothers said:

“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.”

Netflix's head of scripted series, Jinny Howe, said Stranger Things has always belonged to its fans and called the show a worldwide phenomenon. The company said it is working again with the Duffers and Trefry to give fans a new dimension of the universe.

The franchise so far

The original series has ended, and the Evening Standard places the announcement almost a year after the show finished. Netflix had already released the animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales from '85, whose second season arrived in September according to Engadget. BFMTV calls Other Worlds the fourth project in the universe, after the original series and two derivative works. Vulture notes that the first volume of the final season debuted as the second-most-watched premiere for a Netflix series ever, behind Squid Game season two. Engadget reports that The First Shadow closes on London's West End on December 27 and on Broadway on January 3, and that a recording of the play is reportedly coming to Netflix. The Verge reads the live-action show as a much bigger push to expand the franchise than the animated spinoff.