Netflix has ordered a live-action prequel spinoff to Stranger Things titled Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, set to debut in 2028. The announcement arrived on Stranger Things Day (Nov. 6), the date Will Byers disappeared in the original series’ 1983 timeline.
For metro Atlanta and Georgia, the news carries a bittersweet edge. The original series, which wrapped its final season at the end of 2025, spent nearly a decade filming primarily in and around Atlanta.
Netflix’s long-awaited ‘Stranger Things’ prequel heads to New Mexico — leaving the Atlanta area that built Hawkins behind
Downtown Jackson stood in for Hawkins, the former Georgia Mental Health Institute on Emory’s Briarcliff campus became Hawkins Lab, Cinespace Studios Atlanta (formerly EUE/Screen Gems) housed major sets, and locations across Stockbridge, East Point, Stone Mountain, and elsewhere filled out the 1980s Midwest town. Production injected more than $650 million into Georgia’s GDP, employed thousands of local workers (including thousands on Season 5 alone), and worked with more than 2,000 in-state vendors.
Other Worlds is a prequel set in 1955 in Marion, Nevada — decades before the events of the main series or the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow (which explores Henry Creel/Vecna’s earlier years in Hawkins). Teasers and statements from creators Matt and Ross Duffer indicate it will examine events leading up to Henry’s exposure to the otherworldly substance that grants him his powers.
Plot specifics remain scarce, but the Duffers have described it as “Stranger Things, but also thrillingly fresh, with a new setting, new heroes and villains.” A teaser shows a bicycle with a radio near a restricted area at night, and the tagline reads “Before Hawkins, there was Marion.”
The series is co-created by the Duffer brothers and longtime Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry (who also wrote The First Shadow and will serve as showrunner and executive producer). Director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Darkest Hour) will helm the first three episodes and executive produce. Additional executive producers include Shawn Levy (21 Laps), Paul Dichter, Shelley Meals, Andrea Sperling, and Pavlina Hatoupis. The Duffers are executive producing via Upside Down Pictures as a carve-out from their overall deal at Paramount (they previously had an overall at Netflix that expired in 2026).
Production is set for New Mexico, a state that already stood in for parts of California (and some Nevada-adjacent desert scenes) in Season 4 of the original series. That shift means the next major live-action chapter in the universe will not return to the Georgia soundstages, suburban streets, and small-town squares that defined Hawkins on screen for years. Georgia’s film industry has faced a broader slowdown in recent years after peaking earlier in the decade, with fewer productions and pressure on local crews and vendors. While the original show’s economic footprint was substantial, this prequel’s move elsewhere underscores the competitive nature of film incentives across states.
Jinny Howe, Netflix’s Head of Scripted Series for the U.S. and Canada, said the streamer is “honored to partner again with Matt and Ross Duffer and Kate Trefry to give fans a new dimension of this universe.” Levy added that the series retains the “DNA of our flagship series while exploring a new era, setting and all-new characters, themes and mythology.” Trefry called the opportunity an “insane honor,” promising a return to the horror, wonder, and mystery of the original while telling a new story.
This is the fourth major project in the Stranger Things universe, following the main series, the animated Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, and the stage show. Casting is next, with a 2028 release targeted. Atlanta-area fans can still visit many of the original filming locations that brought Hawkins to life — from Jackson’s downtown streets to the Briarcliff lab exterior — even as the franchise’s next chapter looks west.