Stranger Things prequel Other Worlds is coming to Netflix in 2028

It's official: Stranger Things is coming back, just not the way you might have expected. Netflix has confirmed Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, a live-action prequel set in the 1950s and due in 2028.

The news dropped on Stranger Things Day, almost a year after the original show wrapped up.

What happened? 🎬

Netflix announced the series together with a short teaser. It's set on April 19, 1955, in Marion, Nevada. You see an abandoned bike near a restricted area at night, town lights in the distance and something in the sky that looks a lot like a wormhole forming.

The song playing is "Sh-Boom" by The Chords. Sharp-eared fans will remember it from Season 5, when Max visits Henry Creel's memory of Hawkins High.

Kate Trefry, a longtime Stranger Things writer, co-created the series with Matt and Ross Duffer and will be writer and showrunner. Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Darkest Hour) will direct the first three episodes. Filming will take place in New Mexico.

The Duffers stay on as executive producers but won't run the show day to day. That was the plan all along, they have said, as they have an exclusive deal with Paramount, though their Stranger Things work is excluded from it.

How does it link to the rest of the story?

Everyone involved insists this is a wholly new story with new characters, villains and mythology. Still, the connections are hard to miss.

The stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow (which opened in London's West End in December 2023) is set in 1959 and follows a teenage Henry Creel. Other Worlds takes place a few years before the Nevada experiment in that play.

Back in November 2025, Matt Duffer told Variety the spin-off would explain the strange rock young Henry finds in a scientist's briefcase in the Nevada caves. That rock first appeared in the play and then showed up again in Season 5, which ended on December 31, 2025.

In a joint statement, the Duffers called it "Stranger Things, but also thrillingly fresh" and added: "watch the skies, nerds!" Trefry said the team hopes to "blow your minds and break your hearts all over again."

What's next?

Casting is the next step, and the Duffers say they can't reveal anything else yet. You can already set a reminder on the show's official Netflix page.

So the wait is long. But after years of vague hints about a spin-off, at least we now know the year, the decade and the town. The bikes, it seems, are staying.