{"id":322127,"date":"2025-11-30T09:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/322127\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T09:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:54:06","slug":"stranger-things-tv-people-fought-with-the-stranger-things-play-people-over-spoilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/322127\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Things TV people fought with the Stranger Things play people over spoilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since it was first announced<\/a>, stage play\/Broadway arm of the Netflix marketing machine\u00a0Stranger Things: The First Shadow\u00a0has had a pretty obvious problem gnawing at its roots, like so many moistly undulating tentacles<\/a>: Nothing that happened in the prequel play, which originally debuted in London\u2019s West End in December 2023, could be all that\u00a0important, because Netflix sure as hell wasn\u2019t going to sequester vital plot points for its biggest brand behind a $100 (minimum!) New York theater ticket.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, there\u00a0does\u00a0seem to have been some mild conflict on this score, per a new spoiler-filled interview<\/a> that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer gave to Variety after the release of the first four episodes of the show\u2019s final season earlier this week. There\u2019s a whole lot of conversation in that piece about plot points from the new season (including a slightly shamefaced reveal that the Duffers are trying to do right by a particular performer who might\u00a0have gotten short shrift in one of the show\u2019s most infamous episodes). But we were fascinated by the way interviewers Adam B. Vary and Kate Aurthor asked about plot points and seeming tie-in moments from The First Shadow (which tells the backstory of series Big Bad Vecna), which the Duffers have to walk a very fine line between acknowledging, and also writing off as \u201cEaster eggs\u201d so that there very fervent fanbase doesn\u2019t worry they\u2019re getting ripped off of TV show reveals.<\/p>\n

That includes noting that there was a genuine back-and-forth going on between the show side of things and the team working on the play about what plot reveals and spoilers the production could actually have. \u201cWhen we were working on the play with [credited writer] Kate Trefry, we had Henry\u2019s backstory worked out,\u201d Matt Duffer asserts, referring to Vecna\u2019s formerly human identity. \u201cThere was always a balance that we had to find in terms of how much we were going to put in the play. [The director] Stephen [Daldry] and [the produce] Sonia [Friedman] were always pushing for more and we were pushing back and saying, \u2018Well, we have to wait to reveal that in the show.\u2019\u201d Which we have to imagine would have been insanely frustrating, were we trying to put together a stage show designed to give fans of this product a complete story. But, hey, that\u2019s theater\/marketing for you.<\/p>\n

Ross Duffer does note that there are references to the play sprinkled around the show\u2019s fifth season, but his brother was quick to make it very\u00a0clear that no theatrical knowledge will be required to understand anything in the show\u2019s final endzone push, which will continue to be happening through the very last minutes of 2025. \u201cYou absolutely do not have to have seen the play to understand,\u201d Matt Duffer reassured fans once more. \u201cThey\u2019re Easter eggs more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since it was first announced, stage play\/Broadway arm of the Netflix marketing machine\u00a0Stranger Things: The First Shadow\u00a0has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-322127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}