Netflix has ordered Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, a live-action 1950s prequel due in 2028, the company said on Friday 6 November 2026, Stranger Things Day. Its Tudum announcement names Matt and Ross Duffer and Kate Trefry as creators, with Trefry as showrunner and Joe Wright directing the first three episodes. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter both report a series order.
Key facts
- Series: Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, live-action prequel, premiere year 2028 (no date given)
- Creators: Matt and Ross Duffer and Kate Trefry; Trefry is co-creator, showrunner and executive producer
- Director: Joe Wright, the first three episodes; production in New Mexico
- Setting: Marion, Nevada, 19 April 1955, as shown on the teaser’s title card
- Executive producers: the Duffers (Upside Down Pictures), Shawn Levy (21 Laps) and four others
The people who built Stranger Things have left Netflix. The Duffers moved to a Paramount overall deal in April 2026 and Shawn Levy is heading to Disney’s 20th Television, yet Netflix owns the franchise and is extending it with a new showrunner and a new cast. For producers and rights holders, it is a live case of a streamer keeping a hit going after its authors have gone.
What the announcement says
A short teaser accompanied the news. Deadline describes a bicycle left beside a restricted area at night, with town lights in the distance and a disturbance in the sky. A title card reads “April 19, 1955 Marion, Nevada”, and the soundtrack is “Sh-Boom” by The Chords, which TheWrap reports plays from a radio fixed to the bike. Netflix places the series before both the flagship show and The First Shadow, the Hawkins-set stage play from 1959.
Netflix says production will take place in New Mexico. The Hollywood Reporter says the series will have an all-new cast and story, and Levy’s statement, carried by Variety, describes a new ensemble with “all-new characters, themes and mythology”. No actors are named; the Duffers’ statement ends with “on to casting”. Plot details have not been released.
Who is making it
Trefry has written for Stranger Things since its second season and wrote The First Shadow, from a story she developed with the Duffers and Jack Thorne, Deadline notes. Other Worlds is her first series as a creator. She says the Duffers gave her her first paying job in Hollywood and that the years since have been “a joy and a fever dream”.
Wright, a BAFTA and Golden Globe winner, directed Atonement and Darkest Hour. The Duffers and Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment executive produce alongside Paul Dichter, Shelley Meals, Andrea Sperling and Pavlina Hatoupis. Jinny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the US and Canada, said the company is partnering again with the Duffers and Trefry.
The Duffers are not day-to-day showrunners. Variety and Deadline both say their executive producing role through Upside Down Pictures is carved out of their Paramount deal, and Deadline reports they were never expected to run the show daily.
Where the franchise stands
Netflix says Stranger Things has drawn more than 1.2 billion views across its first four seasons since 2016. For the final season, Netflix reported 31.3 million views in the week of 29 December 2025 to 4 January 2026, and 105.7 million total views at that point, which put season five ninth on its all-time English-language TV list. The Hollywood Reporter noted those tallies were still accumulating over a 91-day window.
The universe already reaches beyond the main series. The animated Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 has two seasons streaming and, Deadline says, is awaiting a renewal decision. The First Shadow runs at London’s Phoenix Theatre until 27 December and at Broadway’s Marquis Theater until 3 January 2027, and Netflix House sites in Philadelphia and Dallas host attractions. Deadline counts Other Worlds as the second TV spin-off.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos addressed the exits in a Hollywood Reporter interview on 1 October. He said the Duffers wanted to make theatrical films and that Netflix would stay tied to the Stranger Things universe, which it still owns. He said Levy’s move to Disney reflected his commitments to Lucasfilm’s Star Wars films. Levy’s Disney deal begins in October 2027, the same report says.
What is not known
Netflix gave no premiere date within 2028, episode count or budget. The shoot start has not been announced either; Deadline reports that by September the project was said to be nearing a green light for production to begin in 2027, a timetable Netflix has not confirmed. Variety and Deadline both recall Duffer comments suggesting the series will address Henry Creel’s backstory; Netflix has not said so. A release for the filmed performances of The First Shadow, which Deadline says Netflix recorded in February, is also unannounced.
Related FilmBunch coverage includes the Skydance reshuffle of TV and streaming distribution at Paramount, Lee Sung Jin’s Lila Pictures launch at Netflix, Netflix’s first Portugal feature, Operation TAP and the casting of Stranger Things actor Maya Hawke in Magic: The Gathering. More under Netflix.
Our reading
A hit’s value to a platform sits in the title, not in the contracts of its makers. Netflix has paired a long-serving writer with a prestige film director, kept the original creators as executive producers, and put a year on the calendar two years out: an anchor for a franchise whose main series ended at the turn of the year.
The exposure is the gap. Until 2028 the franchise rests on animation, theatre and Netflix House, and no shoot date has been given. Casting, the start of filming in New Mexico and a renewal decision on Tales From ’85 are the next signals of how much weight Netflix is putting behind it.
Sources
- Netflix Tudum, Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure Is Coming (6 November 2026; primary announcement, statements, production in New Mexico, franchise figures)
- Deadline (6 November 2026; teaser detail, Paramount carve-out, Levy and Tales From ’85 status)
- Variety (6 November 2026; series order, New Mexico, Paramount carve-out)
- The Hollywood Reporter (6 November 2026; handover of creative duties, all-new cast and story)
- TheWrap (6 November 2026; teaser song and title card, franchise context)
- Netflix Tudum, Top 10 week of 29 December 2025 (Stranger Things 5 viewing figures)
- The Hollywood Reporter (1 October 2026; Ted Sarandos on the Duffers and Shawn Levy leaving Netflix)
- The Hollywood Reporter (6 January 2026; Stranger Things 5 finale viewing and cinema estimate)