EVERYTHING STRANGER THINGS FANS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FIRST SHADOW

Fans have been waiting a long time for season five of Stranger Things to drop on Netflix, and with the release window for the streaming service's most popular series' final few episodes still quite vague; we could all be waiting a considerable bit longer (seriously, don't expect it before late in 2025). Thankfully, there's something to tide over even the most diehard Stranger Things fans: a brand-new prequel in the form of the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Despite being a prequel, The First Shadow directly stems from the events of Stranger Things' most recent season. It fills in some critical gaps, showing audiences how Henry Creel ended up in Hawkins, Indiana, and became the town's resident source of evil, Vecna. While The First Shadow recently wrapped up playing in the West End of London (and will premiere on Broadway sometime in 2025), fans can discover every crucial detail about the play and how it connects to Stranger Things right here.

What Is Stranger Things: The First Shadow About?

An Evil Shadow Is Cast Across Hawkins

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a stage play based on an idea conceived by the Duffer brothers (the television series creators) alongside their fellow Stranger Things co-writer, Kate Trefry, and the screenwriter for 2022's Enola Holmes 2, Jack Thorne. Trefry wrote the play herself, while Stephen Daldry (who helmed Billy Elliot on the screen and stage) was hired to direct it with the assistance of co-director Justin Martin.

At its core, The First Shadow showcases what the town of Hawkins, Indiana, was like decades before audiences saw it for the first time on Stranger Things. Throughout the theatrical production, the adolescent years of familiar faces like Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper, and Bob Newby are revealed, and, as it turns out, they've all had a much closer brush with the soon-to-be-discovered demon underworld than previously guessed. At the same time, Dr. Brenner, the evil mastermind behind Hawkins Lab, is also explored, providing the foundation for his obsession with a dimension he knows exists but can't access (yet).

As exciting as all that no doubt sounds to longtime Stranger Things fans, the most essential piece of the puzzle explored in The First Shadow is the character of Henry Creel and his relationship with the only person who will ever love him, Bob Newby's younger sister, Patty. Only Patty can pull Henry back as he falls deeper into his obsessions. Sadly, tragedy remains inevitable because Henry Creel's destiny is to rule the Upside Down as the impossibly evil entity, Vecna, and The First Shadow shows us exactly how that transpires.

How Does Henry Creel Become Vecna in Stranger Things: The First Shadow?

An Accidental Discovery Changes His Life Forever

Even some of the most diehard Stranger Things fans might not have heard the name Patty Newby before. She's never been mentioned in the television series but was brought up in the comic book Stranger Things: Tomb of Ybwen. In The First Shadow, audiences finally see her for the first time when she's introduced as the potential love interest for Henry Creel, a young boy who has just moved to Hawkins with his family after a strange accident forced them to leave Nevada in a hurry.

The story begins roughly two dozen years before Will Byers's disappearance in the first season of Stranger Things. The early part of The First Shadow concerns Henry Creel's first run-in with the man who will forever alter his life, Dr. Brenner. The stage play digs deeper into Dr. Brenner's motivations than ever before. It turns out they stem from a desire to avenge his father's death caused by a visit to Dimension X, the alternate dimension whose discovery predates that of the Upside Down.

Brenner's father accompanied a crew of sailors aboard the SS Aldgate, the first vessel to discover Dimension X. Only Brenner's father returned alive, and he held onto the secret of what he found in that dimension until the day he died and finally revealed the truth to his son. From then on, Dr. Brenner became obsessed with discovering Dimension X and started researching ways to get there from the Nevada desert. That's when Henry Creel enters the picture (or stage, as it were).

As it turns out, Vecna wasn't always a monster. At first, he was just an ordinary 12-year-old boy named Henry Creel, whose life was forever altered when he mistakenly stumbles upon some of Dr. Brenner's scientific equipment hidden in a cave in Nevada and is mistakenly sent into Dimension X. Henry returns after being lost for 12 hours in this unknown dimension with powers that will eventually lead to his killing his mother and framing his father for the crime. As it turns out, much like how the Mind Flayer entrapped Will Byers in the show, Henry Creel was infiltrated by the same monster during this time frame. When his mother begins to sense something is wrong with him, she suggests the family move to Hawkins.

From there, the rest of The First Shadow unfolds. Henry's relationship with Patty becomes the play's driving force as she struggles to free him from the control of the Mind Flayer's influence. Of course, we know how this story must inevitably end. The Mind Flayer wins, and Patty meets a tragic fate (although one perhaps not as final as Henry believes). Afterward, Dr. Brenner tracks down Henry and takes him hostage, ready to begin his experiments.

Does This Mean Vecna Didn't Create The Mind Flayer?

He's Potentially More of a Five-Star General

Eagle-eyed fans of Stranger Things have already, no doubt, picked out an inconsistency created by The First Shadow. On-screen, it was suggested that Vecna was the one who made the Mind Flayer in the Upside-Down to control all the other monsters he eventually uses to invade Hawkins. The First Shadow implies that the Mind Flayer already existed in Dimension X. So, it begs the question: Who is the real big bad of Stranger Things?

Taking The First Shadow at face value, we can assume that some of its revelations will soon impact Stranger Things's upcoming fifth and final season. For one, it seemingly reaffirms that the Mind Flayer is the most significant threat facing the town of Dawkins. If the Mind Flayer created Vecna, it's far more important than we've given it credit for, and perhaps Dustin was more right than we imagined when he referred to Vecna as the Mind Flayer's "five-star general."

Could this, in turn, lead to a possible Vecna redemption arc? After all, he was seemingly an ordinary boy before his accidental trip to Dimension X, and the stranglehold put on his brain by the Mind Flayer isn't his fault. Then again, it's pretty clear that Vecna has gleefully taken to his new role as the commander of the Upside Down, so perhaps this darkness was in him all along.

The Duffer brothers have hinted that Will is the key to potentially saving the town of Hawkins and its residents from the Upside Down. Whoever the ultimate big bad of Stranger Things is revealed as, the ties that bind Will and Henry together as victims of the Mind Flayer suggest that these two will have a massive role to play in the series' ending.

What Further Implications Are Raised By Stranger Things: The First Shadow?

The Mind Flayer's Tendrils Extend to Season 5

Outside the revelations that The First Shadow provides regarding Henry Creel, Dr. Brenner, and the Mind Flayer, fans of Stranger Things also get to spend time with a few familiar faces during the stage production. For instance, everyone's favorite mom, Joyce Brenner, is seen during her teenage years. As it turns out, Joyce has grand aspirations to leave the town of Hawkins behind. She's also obsessed with the theater and likes to carry around a copy of the Communist Manifesto wherever she goes. Then she hooks up with the deadbeat, Lonnie, eventually leading to her being stuck raising her sons, Will and Jonathan, alone.

As for Jim Hopper, he's presented in The First Shadow as something of the town's resident bad boy, a fun combination of sarcasm and confidence, who catches Joyce's eye. Unfortunately, all of those amusing qualities will be beaten out of him by the Vietnam War by the time the first season of Stranger Things begins.

Then there's Bob Newby, who's a part of this story because his sister, Patty, is so relevant to the play's events. Saddened that Joyce doesn't even know he exists, Bob starts a radio show that even Patty refuses to take seriously, which brings us back to Bob's adopted sibling. There's almost no way that, after introducing a character as integral to the plot as Patty, she doesn't show up in season five of Stranger Things. After all, based on what The First Shadow shows us, she's the only one who has any hope of reaching Henry Creel and getting him to turn his back on the Mind Flayer.

Last but not least, let's not forget about the implications suggested by discovering a brand-new dimension. Dimension X hasn't been seen on Stranger Things, but with season five providing the end to that particular strand of the story, don't be surprised if one of the series' inevitable spin-offs explores Dimension X further in the near future. Until we know more, however, we'll have to wait patiently for season five to finally find out how directly The First Shadow ties into Stranger Things' endgame.

2024-09-15T09:43:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd