Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure is coming in 2028, Netflix announced on November 6, 2026. The live-action prequel will introduce a new ensemble, but the official announcement does not name its actors or give a premiere month or day. Fans looking for a cast list therefore have a confirmed project and release year, rather than confirmed performers.
The Duffer Brothers’ new series is set in the 1950s, before the Hawkins story of Stranger Things and before the stage play The First Shadow. Netflix describes a new era, setting, heroes and villains. That makes the announcement a new branch of the franchise, rather than a new season with the original group simply picking up where it left off.
Creative-team credits are separate from casting
Kate Trefry is confirmed as showrunner, co-creator and writer. A longtime Stranger Things writer, she also wrote The First Shadow. Joe Wright will direct the first three episodes and executive produce. These are creative-team roles: neither name is an announcement of an actor playing one of the new characters.
Matt and Ross Duffer are executive producing through Upside Down Pictures, alongside Shawn Levy and 21 Laps and other producers named in Netflix’s release. The Duffers describe new heroes and villains and say casting is the next step. That supports the expectation of a new ensemble; it does not establish a roster, a returning star or a particular actor’s role.
The prequel sits before the 1959 stage story
The story’s place in the timeline helps distinguish the projects already using the Stranger Things name. The First Shadow explores Henry Creel’s past in Hawkins in 1959, and Netflix says Other Worlds takes place before that play. The animated Tales From ’85 instead follows the Hawkins crew in the winter of 1985; Netflix says its first two seasons are streaming.
That ordering describes fictional time, rather than a compulsory viewing sequence. The official release promises a wholly new story while retaining the franchise’s horror, wonder and mystery. It does not explain every connection, so there is no basis yet to prescribe which earlier plot details a viewer must know or to turn a timeline into a synopsis of the new show.
New Mexico is a production location, not a plot reveal
Netflix says production will take place in New Mexico. A filming location does not by itself identify where the fictional story happens. For a practical follow-up, the official Tudum announcement linked below is the place to watch for named actors and an exact premiere date; the release does not yet provide a UK or US launch hour or a territory-specific price.
The confirmed starting points are a 2028 live-action prequel, a new ensemble and the Trefry–Wright creative team. Casting and the exact release date are the next details that would turn a general announcement into a viewing plan. Until those are published, the original series’ cast list cannot fill the gaps in Other Worlds.
Based on the original records and attributed reporting below. Dates, conditions and limits are retained.
AI assisted with drafting and editing. This article is part of our preview edition. Editorial standards & corrections →