The first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 feature several ties to the official spin-off stage play The First Shadow, enhancing the franchise's canon through shared backstory elements. These connections appear in dream sequences and flashbacks, drawing from Henry Creel's early life and Hawkins High events. Fans familiar with the play will spot Easter eggs involving locations, memories, and props.
Connections in Season 5
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1, introduces links to the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which serves as official canon in the franchise. Written by Kate Trefry with involvement from the Duffer Brothers, the play explores the backstory of Henry Creel, known as Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower in the series), alongside the high school years of Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) and Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
In the show's dream realm, where Vecna traps Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher), she meets Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink). Max explains that this world consists of Henry's memories, including a 1959 flashback to Hawkins High School directly inspired by the play's events.
Nevada Caves Hideout
A key location is the Nevada caves where Max hides from Vecna. Max notes that Henry avoids the area due to terror. This stems from the play, where young Henry lives near a Nevada military facility conducting interdimensional experiments. Exploring the caves, he discovers technology that transports him to Dimension X, the Upside Down's origin, leading to an encounter with the Mind Flayer and molecular changes.
Additional Easter Eggs
Other nods include a spyglass from the Creel House memory, matching one used by Henry in the play. In the 1959 flashback, Joyce hands out flyers for an Oklahoma! production, a detail from The First Shadow.
The play clarifies Dimension X as distinct from the Upside Down: the former features red-orange barren landscapes and shared creatures like Demogorgons, while the latter mirrors Hawkins in blue hues. Season 5 builds toward deeper explanations of these realms, possibly tying into theories like the Upside Down as a future Hawkins, referenced via A Wrinkle in Time.
Ross Duffer teased further integration: "We do even a little more with the play in a later episode."
These ties enrich the final season's worldbuilding without resolving all mysteries yet.
