Young Hopper, Joyce and Vecna revealed in Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Stranger Things is one of the biggest shows on Netflix, a 1980s pastiche about otherworldly horrors terrorizing a small Indiana town. The proper series has one more season left, but Netflix is looking to turn the show into a franchise. We’re talking spinoffs, merch, and now a major new stage play called Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is opening in London in a few months. It’s set decades before the events of the mothership show and will follow characters like Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers (or Joyce Maldonado back then), and Henry Creel, aka the boy who would become Vecna, back when they were high school students.

And now, the full cast has been revealed! Take a look at the actors playing young Joyce, Hopper and Bob Newby below:

Stranger Things: The First Shadow full cast list

Here’s the cast for the maiden production:

• Oscar Lloyd (James Hopper, Jr.)
• Isabella Pappas (Joyce Maldonado)
• Christopher Buckley (Bob Newby)
• Patrick Vaill (Dr. Brenner)
• Louis McCartney (Henry Creel)
• Shane Attwooll (Chief Hopper)
• Kemi Awoderu (Sue Anderson)
• Chase Brown (Lonnie Byers)
• Ammar Duffus (Charles Sinclair)
• Gilles Geary (Ted Wheeler)
• Florence Guy (Karen Childress)
• Max Harwood (Allen Munson)
• Michael Jibson (Victor Creel)
• Matthew Pidgeon (Father Newby)
• Calum Ross (Walter Henderson)
• Maisie Norma Seaton (Claudia Henderson)
• Lauren Ward (Virginia Creel)
• Ella Karuna Williams (Patty Newby)

According to Deadline, Stranger Things: The First Shadow also stars Tricia Adele-Turner, Lauren Arney, Reya-Nyomi Brown, Patricia Castro, Lydia Fraser, Isaac Gryn, Mark Hammersley, Tom Peters, KingdomSibanda, Tiana Simone and Danny Sykes. That’s a really big cast! The play is written by Kate Trefry and directed by Stephen Daldry with co-direction by Justin Martin.

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer weighed in with a statement. “The cast of Stranger Things: The First Shadow is nothing short of phenomenal,” they said. “These actors brilliantly explore the early days of many fan favorites – including Hopper, Joyce, Bob, Henry and Dr. Brenner – while also bringing new characters to vivid life. We couldn’t be more thrilled and can’t wait for you to meet them all live on stage. See you in London, nerds!”

Stranger Things: The First Shadow opens at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End on December 14. Barring catastrophe, it’s assumed that it will eventually make its way to Broadway, and one day tour the United States.

Stranger Things and the Cursed Child

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is part of a recent trend where hit media franchises are spun off into plays. The biggest example is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a sequel to the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. That play was so massive that you actually had to attend two separate performances to see the whole thing, although a one-play version of the two-part play has since made the rounds. It’s a big ask to buy two overpriced theater tickets, so I’m hoping that The First Shadow can contain itself.

There’s also a Game of Thrones play about the Tourney at Harrenhal in the works, although we haven’t heard anything about it for a minute. And of course, Disney laid the foundation for all of this years ago by turning popular animated movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King into Broadway hits.

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