News

Walking into Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway, theatergoers are greeted by a giant replica of the Creel house at the center of the Netflix series, plush demogorgons for sale and ominous music from the 1950s playing as signs welcome them to Hawkins, Ind.

“You’re going to be right in front of the Mind Flayer!” an attendee in the front few rows says upon taking his seat at an April preview performance.

The show, which is opening at the Marquis Theatre April 22, comes to New York after opening in London’s West End in December 2023 and marks the streaming giant’s biggest foray onto Broadway to date. For Netflix, bringing this show to the stage allows the streaming giant to connect with the large fandom around one of its most popular series, in the same way the company has been launching immersive experiences around Bridgerton and Squid Game.

Netflix has teamed up with Sonia Friedman Productions to produce the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which is “rooted in the mythology” of the hit streaming series Stranger Things and opened at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End in December of 2023. The show has been breaking box office records and won several awards, and this year, it will be making the jump to Broadway. Stranger Things: The First Shadow is set to begin previews at the Marquis Theatre on Friday, March 28, 2025 and officially open on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. In anticipation of the show’s Broadway debut, Entertainment Weekly has shared a look at the Broadway version of the Mind Flayer creature! You can check it out at the bottom of this article.

A while back, Deadline heard that Stranger Things: The First Shadow “will be the first instalment in a trilogy exploring the dark underbelly of Hawkins,...

Updated, January 24: Complete casting has been announced for the Broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. In addition to the principal cast, previously announced, the 34-member cast will include Janie Brookshire, Kelsey Anne Brown, Malcolm Callender, Ta’Rea Campbell, Juan Carlos as Bob Newby (replacing Nicholas Eldridge), Antoinette Comer, Robert T. Cunningham, Ayana Cymone, Tom D’Agustino, Victor de Paula Rocha, Ian Dolley, Dora Dolphin, Nya Garner, Logan Gould, Shea Grant, Rebecca Hurd, Ted Koch, Timothy Lawrence, Jamie Martin Mann, Patrick Scott McDermott, Stephen Wattrus, Maya West, Eric Wiegand and Graham Winton.

Previously, December 4, 2024: T.R. Knight, Alex Breaux and Gabrielle Nevaeh will be among those joining the previously announced Louis McCartney in Broadway’s upcoming production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Knight (Grey’s Anatomy) will play Victor Creel, Breaux will be Patty Newby.

One actor is heading from Grey Sloan to the Upside Down, as Grey's Anatomy star T.R. Knight has landed a major role in a new Stranger Things production.

Per Variety, Knight has joined the cast of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a stage play opening in 2025 that's based on the Netflix series. Knight will play Victor Creel, the father of Henry Creel (aka Vecna). The play is a prequel to the series, set decades before the events of Stranger Things Season 1. The synopsis reads, "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.”

Related 9 Beloved Stranger Things Characters...

Tr Knight is headed back to Broadway in the upcoming production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow!

The 51-year-old actor was just announced to be playing Victor Creel in the Broadway transfer of the stage show based on the hit Netflix series, according to THR.

Tr was last on Broadway nearly 10 years ago in It’s Only a Play.

Keep reading to find out more…

He will be joined by just announced co-stars Rosie Benton as Virginia Creel, Alex Breaux as Dr. Brenner, Nicky Eldridge as Bob Newby, Andrew Hovelson as Principal Newby, Gabrielle Nevaeh Green as Patty Newby, Alison Jaye as Joyce Maldonado and Burke Swanson as James Hopper Jr.

It was previously announced that Louis McCartney will reprise the role of Henry Creel, which he originated on the West End in London.

Here’s a synopsis: Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start,...

Try not to get whiplash from flipping into the Upside Down with the newly announced cast of Broadway’s Stranger Things: The First Shadow. We first learned back in August that the hit production, now running in London’s West End, will make its journey to the Great White Way in 2025, and now we have a better idea of how the cast is shaping up. Thanks to a social media post, viewers are invited to get up-close-and-personal with the new cast as they introduce themselves and reveal what parts they’ll be playing. Included in the main ensemble is a lineup that includes Emmy Award-nominee Gabrielle Nevaeh (That Girl Lay Lay) as Patty Newby, Stranger Things Season 5 star Alex Breaux (Joe Pickett) as Dr. Brenner, Emmy Award-nominee T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy) as Victor Creel, Nicky Eldridge as Bob Newby, Alison Jaye (Shameless) as Joyce Maldonado, Burke Swanson (Back to the...

Broadway will be turned Upside Down this spring — and it’s bringing some familiar faces along for the ride.

Netflix announced on Wednesday that Emmy-nominated Grey’s Anatomy alum T.R. Knight will play Victor Creel in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which will open at the Marquis Theatre in Manhattan on April 22, 2025 (with preview performances beginning Friday, March 28, 2025).

More from TVLineWWE Raw Will Keep Things Family-Friendly at New Netflix HomeNetflix's Mo Gets Final Season Release Date - Plus, See New PhotosAaron Rodgers Fights Back From Injury, Buddies Up With Rfk Jr. in Trailer for Netflix Doc Enigma - Watch

Robert Englund...

Based on a series of novel by Jon F Merz, the titular undead Fixer comes to life in the first Lawson teaser trailer.

The age of vampires isn’t over yet, at least if you ask filmmakers. The big wigs at Marvel are (hopefully) working hard on a Blade adaptation which hasn’t been smooth sailing exactly, but there’s another eagerly anticipated, bloodsucking adaptation heading our way.

Lawson, based on Jon F Merz’s series of books, has just unveiled its first teaser trailer. According to the YouTube description, the film follows “a covert operative for a race of living vampires, as he battles a sinister conspiracy to resurrect an ancient god and an old enemy who resurfaces from his shadowy past in this supernatural espionage film”.

Take a look at the Lawson trailer below.

Interestingly, the production has cast Brandon S Stumpf as Lawson. If he looks familiar to you,...

Exclusive: The Stranger Things stage show, an unbelievably brilliant new blueprint for theatricality that premieres in London’s West End tonight, will be the first installment in a trilogy exploring the dark underbelly of Hawkins, Indiana.

Breaking Baz can reveal that parts two and three are set to follow the inaugural play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, in two- or three-year intervals, according to insiders associated with the production. The stage sequels will launch in London first.

Meanwhile, there are already plans for Stranger Things: The First Shadow to transfer to Broadway.

None of that’s official yet, of course. Producers and backers will study reviews out on Friday and across the weekend and the box office receipts before green-lighting any further productions.

The Stranger Things play is set in the late 1950s — a time when a young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won...

The Hawkins, Indiana, stage show just got a little creepier and a little nearer to launch.

The Stranger Things stage play has unveiled a first look production image and the name of its first act, as a public preview kicked off today in London. We first told you about the play last year and you can now check out the image below.

The original stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow officially opens next month on December 14 at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End, and will be a prequel to the Netflix sci-fi drama set in Hawkins in 1959.

The first act will be titled ‘Chapter One: The Girl From Nowhere,’ it was revealed today. The play features several characters who play key roles in the TV series, which is set in the 1980s.

Stranger Things co-creators the Duffer Brothers, His Dark Materials scribe Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry are writing the play,...

Stranger Things: The First Shadow — the stage play based on the hit Netflix series — promises to be a “cinematic” experience that lays the groundwork for the series biggest villain, Henry Creel.

In a new three-minute featurette released Monday for the streamer’s annual “Stranger Things Day” (the annual event marks the day when Will Beyers, in 1983, went missing in Hawkins, Indiana), Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer were joined by the production’s creative team and cast, including director Stephen Daldry, as they teased what fans can expect out of the upcoming live stage show.

According to Matt, the show came about after hearing “Stephen Daldry was interested in doing a play — he’s a director of all these movies and he’s an incredibly accomplished theater director.”

Ross recalled, “We were in the middle of breaking season four with our writers. We started going, ‘Ok, well, there’s...

While much time still stands before the conclusion to the Duffer Brothers’ “Stranger Things” Netflix series, with Season 5 awaiting a deal for its actors, the prequel play — “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” — will give audiences a glimpse further into the past and the origins of the Upside Down.

Set in 1959 Hawkins, the play will focus on the arrival of Henry Creel to “a regular town with regular worries.” Teenage Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Joyce Maldonado also star, as does a younger Dr. Martin Brenner (Patrick Vaill), who began the cruel experiments on Young Henry.

As with any new iteration of “Stranger Things,” there’s a new crucial character — this time, it’s Patty Newby (Ella Karuna Williams). There is also a Principal Newby (Matthew Pigeon), but that figure is of less importance to the plot.

“The main thrust of the story is Patty and her little budding romance with Henry,...

Fans of “Stranger Things” can now get a close look at the process behind “The First Shadow,” the stage adaptation that’s soon hitting London’s West End.

In time for what Netflix calls “Stranger Things” Day — the date that Will Byers (Noah Schnapp in the TV series) went missing in Season 1 — the streamer released a video giving a preview into “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.” This comes after Netflix’s recent reveal of the first images from the play, which showed Henry Creel (Louis McCartney) standing off with Dr. Brenner (Patrick Vaill), Lonnie Byers (Chase Brown) holding Joyce Maldonado (Isabella Pappas) and more.

In the featurette, key creatives discuss how the “The First Shadow” came together and what it entails, including playwright Kate Trefry, who teases, “There are so many Easter eggs. It’s Easter morning.”

“The main thrust of the story is Patty [Newby, played by Ella Karuna Williams] and her little,...

We’re getting the first look at Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a live stage show based on the hit Netflix series. Netflix and Sonia Friedman Productions have released some rehearsal images for the stage show that opens at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End on Dec. 14, with previews beginning Nov. 17.

The First Shadow is set in 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.

Written by Kate Trefry, and directed by Stephen Daldry, with co-direction by Justin Martin, the cast includes Shane Attwooll (Chief Hopper), Kemi Awoderu...

Exclusive: Christina Anthony (Mixed-ish), Ray Santiago (Ash vs. Evil Dead) and Melanie J. Newby (Halt & Catch Fire) are set as series regulars opposite Amber Ruffin in NBC comedy pilot Non-Evil Twin from Universal Television.

Written by Ruffin and Kenny Smith, the multi-camera pilot stars Ruffin playing the dual roles of twin sisters Angie and Amber. Angie is the ruthless CEO of AngieCorp, who is as heartless as she is rich. Angie instills fear in everyone she meets, except her caring sister, Amber, who only sees the good in her. Amber—a pushover when it comes to Angie—is forced to step in as the leader of AngieCorp, a Fortune 500 company, despite knowing little about business and even less about the way her sister has been running the corporation.

Anthony will play Christina, Angie’s assistant/acolyte who believes she’s the smartest person in the room and easily annoyed by others.

Carano takes aim at what’s left of her career. Screenshot: DailyWire+ In the fall of 2019, the world was a different place. Donald Trump was the U.S. President, there was no Covid-19 pandemic, and former Mma fighter Gina Carano was a rising film and TV actor set to star in a Mandalorian spin-off.

The Stranger Things writers have shared how a devastating death almost went down very differently.

A Twitter account dedicated to the Netflix show’s writing team explained an alternative idea they had for the shocking scene, which featured in the show’s second season.

The plot twist in question involved the death of Bob Newby, the character played by Sean Astin. In episode eight, titled “The Mind Flayer”, Newby sacrifices himself to save the other characters, ultimately getting killed by demodog during the lockdown in Hawkins Lab.

However, if the writers went with the original idea, Bob would have died at the hands of a possessed Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).

“Crazy s*** that almost happened #1: In season 2, a possessed Will was going to kill Bob,” the tweet read.

If this had happened, it would have drastically changed Will’s story considering he would have had to wrestle with the...

Click here to read the full article.

Elon Musk has criticized Amazon Prime Video’s billion-dollar fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, tweeting that late author J.R.R. Tolkien is “turning in his grave.”

Expanding on why he didn’t like the show, Musk tweeted that “almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both,” adding that “only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.” Galadriel, played by Welsh actress Morfydd Clark, is a warrior elf and the lead of the series that is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Worthy of note, Musk has a long-running feud and rivalry with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, a rivalry that has intensified as Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin compete directly. The enmity between the world’s two richest people has seen the Tesla CEO...