Netflix has announced a new live-action prequel series to Stranger Things, which will premiere on the streaming service in 2028.
The upcoming project is titled Otros mundos: una aventura de Stranger Things, which translates as Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure. It will take viewers back several decades into the 1950s to follow an original story set within the established mythology of the franchise.
Original series creators Matt and Ross Duffer are returning to lead the production. Netflix confirmed that the project will be a full live-action drama rather than an animated series or a production relying primarily on computer-generated imagery.
The story unfolds long before the events of the original television series, in which young residents Eleven, Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson discovered supernatural secrets and government conspiracies in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. The narrative will also take place before the events of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the stage play set in 1959 that explores the past of Henry Creel.
Netflix has not yet revealed which characters will appear in the prequel or what specific threats and mysteries they will be forced to confront.
Creative team and directors
Screenwriter Kate Trefry has been appointed as co-creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer for the series. Trefry is a long-standing writer on Stranger Things who joined the show during its second season and wrote the stage play The First Shadow.
British filmmaker Joe Wright will direct the first three episodes of the series. Wright is widely known for directing acclaimed period feature films, including the literary adaptations Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, as well as the historical drama Darkest Hour, which won two Academy Awards.
The Duffer brothers explained that they had spent years imagining this new adventure. The creators said they hoped to offer a story that felt recognisable to longtime viewers while introducing fresh elements, including unfamiliar settings, new heroes and new villains.
Producer and director Shawn Levy will also return as an executive producer through his company 21 Laps. Production will be mounted in partnership with the Duffer brothers' banner, Upside Down Pictures, alongside other key creative partners from the original franchise.
The 1950s setting and stage play connection
By setting the narrative in the 1950s, the new series explores the earliest historical period yet depicted on screen in the Stranger Things timeline. The original television series was set during the mid-1980s, drawing heavily on the Cold War era and classic pop culture from that decade.
The prequel moves the timeline back even further than The First Shadow, which premiered in London before expanding internationally. That theatrical production focused on the arrival of the Creel family in Hawkins in 1959, revealing how high school student Henry Creel first discovered his powers before transforming into the villain Vecna.
Setting the new series earlier in the decade allows the creative team to examine the mysterious phenomena in Hawkins before the Creel family arrived, and before the Hawkins National Laboratory began its covert psychological experiments on gifted children.
Expanding the Stranger Things franchise
The live-action prequel is part of a broader expansion of the Stranger Things universe on Netflix following the global success of the flagship show. Since its debut in 2016, the original science fiction drama has stood as one of the platform's most-watched series, accumulating billions of viewing hours worldwide.
The franchise has already extended beyond the original television series through other formats. In addition to the stage production, Netflix previously announced an animated spin-off titled Stranger Things: Relatos del 85, designed to tell new standalone stories set during the mid-1980s.
With Trefry and Wright leading the creative team under the supervision of the Duffers and Levy, development on the prequel will continue ahead of its scheduled release in 2028. Audiences will have to wait for further announcements regarding casting and specific plot details.
