The Upside Down may have closed its doors on the original gang, but Netflix isn’t ready to leave the world of Stranger Things behind. The streaming giant has announced another live-action series, and this time, it’s taking fans back decades before Eleven and her friends ever uncovered Hawkins’ darkest secrets.
Announced Friday, November 6, for Stranger Things Day, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure is a new prequel series scheduled to arrive on Netflix in 2028.
The series will take place in the 1950s, long before the events of the original show. It will also predate Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the stage production that explores Henry Creel’s troubled past in Hawkins in 1959.
Netflix hasn’t revealed the new show’s central mystery or introduced its characters yet. However, the Duffer Brothers have made it clear that fans shouldn’t expect a simple return to the same familiar cast.
“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,” Matt and Ross Duffer said in Netflix’s announcement. They describe the series as “Stranger Things, but also thrillingly fresh, with a new setting, new heroes and villains.”
The brothers also hinted that they’re keeping plenty of surprises under wraps, joking that they’re moving on to casting and telling fans to “watch the skies, nerds!”
Who Is Making the New Stranger Things Series?
The new series has some familiar names behind the scenes, along with a director who brings a different kind of experience to the franchise.
Kate Trefry, a longtime Stranger Things writer who also penned The First Shadow, will serve as co-creator, writer, and showrunner. She’ll be joined by Joe Wright, the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning director behind Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and Darkest Hour. Wright will direct the first three episodes and serve as an executive producer.
Trefry says the creative team plans to retain the horror, wonder, and mystery that made the original series so popular while telling a completely new story. She also teased that there’s plenty of unexplored mythology left in the Stranger Things universe.
The Duffer Brothers will executive produce through Upside Down Pictures, alongside Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps production company. Production is scheduled to take place in New Mexico.
Netflix has not announced a cast or a more specific premiere date.
Netflix Isn’t Done Expanding the Stranger Things Universe
The announcement gives fans another reason to keep their Netflix subscriptions around after the original series wrapped up its five-season run in 2025.
It’s also not the first new adventure Netflix has released since the main show’s conclusion. Earlier this year, the streamer debuted Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an animated spin-off that follows the familiar Hawkins gang during the winter of 1985, between the second and third seasons.
However, this new series is taking a very different approach. Rather than revisiting another chapter in the original group’s teenage adventures, Other Worlds will introduce a new era and an entirely new set of characters.
The streaming giant has plenty of reason to keep the franchise alive. The company says the first four seasons have generated more than 1.2 billion views worldwide, while Seasons 4 and 5 rank among the most popular TV seasons in Netflix history.
The show’s reach has extended beyond streaming, too. Its series finale played in more than 620 theaters, with the limited theatrical event reportedly generating over $25 million for theaters. Shortly after the finale, Netflix and WWE brought Stranger Things to the pro wrestling promotion’s flagship program, WWE Raw, in a special-themed crossover event.
For now, fans have a long wait ahead. Netflix has set 2028 as the target for Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, but the first details suggest the franchise is ready to explore some very different corners of its mythology. And considering how much trouble Hawkins has managed to hide over the years, there’s probably plenty left to uncover.
