As Stranger Things approaches its fifth and final season, the Netflix phenomenon is expanding its universe in a new way.

Its stage prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, transports audiences to 1959 Hawkins, Indiana, decades before Eleven and her friends ever faced the Upside Down. While the play isn’t directly tied to Season 5, it offers new insights into the story and even shares an actor with the new season, hinting at subtle ties between both versions.

The play follows a young Henry Creel long before he becomes Vecna, the villain who drives the show’s final chapter. Henry and his family — parents Virginia and Victor and younger sister Alice — move to Hawkins after Henry blinds a boy in Nevada the same way he does in Season 4.

He crosses paths with the younger versions of fa

See Full Page