Stranger Things: The First Shadow Casts T.R. Knight As Victor Creel — Broadway Play Also Finds Its Young Joyce And Hopper
Broadway will be turned Upside Down this spring — and it's bringing some familiar faces along for the ride.
Netflix announced on Wednesday that Emmy-nominated Grey's Anatomy alum T.R. Knight will play Victor Creel in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which will open at the Marquis Theatre in Manhattan on April 22, 2025 (with preview performances beginning Friday, March 28, 2025).
Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street) played an aged and pretty scary-looking Victor Creel in Stranger Things Season 4, Episode 4.
It was previously announced that Louis McCartney will play Victor's son Henry aka the future Vecna in the stage play, reprising his role from London's West End production.
The cast will also feature Alex Breaux (Joe Pickett, Stranger Things Season 5) as Dr. Brenner (played by Matthew Modine on the TV series), Alison Jaye (Shameless) as Joyce Maldonado (aka a Young Winona Ryder), Burke Swanson (Back to the Future: The Musical) as James Hopper Jr. (a Young David Harbour), Rosie Benton (Broadway's Patriots) as Virginia Creel, Nicky Eldridge as Bob Newby (played by Sean Astin in Stranger Things Season 2), Gabrielle Nevaeh (That Girl Lay Lay) as Patty Newby, and Andrew Hovelson as Principal Newby.
Written by Kate Trefry from an original story by herself, series creators The Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne, Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened on London's West End in December 2023. A prequel to the Netflix smash, which is inching ever closer to the 2025 premiere of its fifth and final season, the Stephen Daldry- and Justin Martin-directed show takes audiences to the Hawkins, Ind., of 1959. Back then, its official logline tells us, it was "a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper's car won't start, Bob Newby's sister won't take his radio show seriously, and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn't so easy... and the shadows of the past have a very long reach."
As Stranger Things fans are well aware, young Henry will eventually murder his mother and sister, and fall into the clutches of the nefarious Dr. Martin Brenner. Once in "Papa's" care, the boy will be turned into the antithesis of our heroine, Eleven — twisted One. In Season 4 of the '80s-set sci-fi/horror/comedy/drama, the erstwhile Jane Ives was forced to remember the rampage that he went on in the Hawkins Lab — and the fact that she sent him hurtling into the Upside Down, thus sparking his transformation into the series' Big Bad, Vecna.
Check out a trailer for the show by pressing PLAY on the video at the top of this article. Then review the photo gallery above to find out all we know so far about Season 5 of Stranger Things.