Just when fans thought they had said goodbye to the Upside Down for good, Netflix has pulled them right back in. The streamer has officially announced Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, a brand-new live-action series that will take the franchise back to the 1950s. It is set to premiere in 2028.
The news landed on Friday, November 6 — better known to fans as Stranger Things Day, the date in the show’s timeline when Will Byers first vanished into the Upside Down.
A Prequel Set Decades Before Hawkins
Other Worlds is a prequel that takes place long before Eleven, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will ever stumbled onto the secrets of Hawkins, Indiana. It is also set before the events of the award-winning stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which explores Henry Creel’s troubled past in 1959.
Rather than returning to Hawkins, the new series introduces a fresh location, new characters and its own mythology. Netflix marked the announcement with a short, eerie teaser: the words “April 19, 1955… Marion, Nevada” appear over a cloudy sky as an abandoned bicycle sits in the frame and The Chords’ doo-wop classic “Sh-Boom” plays. A crack of thunder follows, and then a single date flashes on screen — 2028.
Who Is Behind the New Series?
The show comes from creators Matt and Ross Duffer alongside longtime Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry, who co-created the series and will serve as showrunner. Trefry also wrote the script for The First Shadow, so the franchise’s early history is in familiar hands.
Joe Wright — the director behind Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and Darkest Hour — will executive produce and direct the first three episodes. Production is set to take place in New Mexico.
In a statement, the Duffer Brothers said they had been dreaming of Other Worlds for years and called seeing it come to life “surreal and exhilarating,” describing it as unmistakably Stranger Things but with a new setting, new heroes and new villains.
The Stranger Things Universe Keeps Growing
The original series wrapped its five-season run with an emotional finale, but the franchise is far from finished. Other Worlds will be the third Stranger Things series on Netflix, joining the flagship show and the animated spinoff Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, which follows the Hawkins gang on another supernatural mystery set between the original show’s second and third seasons.
No cast has been announced yet, so fans will have to wait for more details on who will lead this next trip into the unknown. For now, the countdown to 2028 has officially begun.
