{"id":31088,"date":"2025-04-18T20:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T20:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31088\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T20:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T20:20:11","slug":"stranger-things-prequel-nearly-cancelled-due-to-technical-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31088\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Things Prequel Nearly Cancelled Due to Technical Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

A technical issue almost caused the Stranger Things<\/a> play to be scrapped. The popular Netflix original series saw its story continue in the form of a prequel play titled Stranger Things: The First Shadow<\/a>. Part of the appeal of the Stranger Things prequel was getting to learn more about the origin story of Henry Creel, aka Vecna. The play reveals how Henry\u2019s mother, Virginia Creel, was killed by a mind flayer back in 1959. In Stranger Things Season 4, a scene shows Virginia being killed when she\u2019s levitated up in the air. Fans also witnessed her limbs snapping. Unfortunately, recreating that moment seemed to be a problem for Stranger Things: The First Shadow.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by ComicBook.com\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Netflix documentary Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow<\/a> takes fans behind the scenes of the making of the play, and how the prop failing almost brought everything to a screeching halt. As the team prepared for its West End opening night, they continuously had issues with the Virginia Creel death scene. Every time they did a walkthrough and testing, the robotic Virginia\u2019s limbs snapped while seated instead of when she was hovering in the air. At one point in the documentary, you can see theater producer Sonia Friedman getting visibly upset.<\/p>\n

\"\"IMAGE CREDIT: NETFLIX<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fine,\u201d assistant manager Abbie Procter said during an on-camera interview as The First Shadow neared the end of its preview run. \u201cIt was an interesting one. The main issue is our breakable Virginia dummy who likes to break too early for reasons that we don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThe dummy needs to do what Virginia does in the TV show, and that\u2019s fly up in the air and all her bones break. But currently, she likes to break in her chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Stranger Things Finally Drops Trailer for Long-Awaited Netflix Release<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Friedman came to the conclusion that the show must go on, with or without a functioning Virginia Creel. \u201cWe just have to keep going with what we\u2019ve got,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t cancel the show. We just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

What made the prop\u2019s malfunction a bigger deal is that the cast and crew of Stranger Things<\/a> flew in to see the play in person. Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of Stranger Things, and stars Matthew Modine and David Harbour were in attendance. The Stranger Things: The First Shadow kept testing the dummy hours before the opening, and luckily, the prop. had no issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still buzzing,\u201d Ross Duffer said after seeing the Stranger Things play. \u201cIt was crazy\u2026 Virginia Creel breaking, that hasn\u2019t been working. So the fact it worked perfectly, and the audience\u2019s response to it\u2026 that was probably the happiest I was that whole play. Just to see her arms break flawlessly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRoss and I love to see limbs break.\u201d Matt Duffer joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is to create a visceral experience for the audience, where they feel shock and awe, surprise and delight,\u201d says Stephen Daldry, the Tony\u2013winning director of the stage play. \u201cYou have to deliver that. The fusion of television and theater is about the speed of [the] narrative and how you create it \u2026 There are moments in the show where you will think, \u2018I don\u2019t understand how they did that.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Stranger Things: The First Shadow comes to Broadway<\/a> later this year. Let us know if you\u2019ll be giving it a watch in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A technical issue almost caused the Stranger Things play to be scrapped. The popular Netflix original series saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,968,18500,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-31088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-regular-news","10":"tag-stranger-things","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114360827066954409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}