Interestingly, there does seem to have been some mild conflict on this score, per a new spoiler-filled interview that series creators Matt and Ross Duffer gave to Variety after the release of the first four episodes of the show’s final season earlier this week. There’s a whole lot of conversation in that piece about plot points from the new season (including a slightly shamefaced reveal that the Duffers are trying to do right by a particular performer who might have gotten short shrift in one of the show’s most infamous episodes). But we were fascinated by the way interviewers Adam B. Vary and Kate Aurthor asked about plot points and seeming tie-in moments from The First Shadow (which tells the backstory of series Big Bad Vecna), which the Duffers have to walk a very fine line between acknowledging, and also writing off as “Easter eggs” so that there very fervent fanbase doesn’t worry they’re getting ripped off of TV show reveals.
That includes noting that there was a genuine back-and-forth going on between the show side of things and the team working on the play about what plot reveals and spoilers the production could actually have. “When we were working on the play with [credited writer] Kate Trefry, we had Henry’s backstory worked out,” Matt Duffer asserts, referring to Vecna’s formerly human identity. “There was always a balance that we had to find in terms of how much we were going to put in the play. [The director] Stephen [Daldry] and [the produce] Sonia [Friedman] were always pushing for more and we were pushing back and saying, ‘Well, we have to wait to reveal that in the show.’” Which we have to imagine would have been insanely frustrating, were we trying to put together a stage show designed to give fans of this product a complete story. But, hey, that’s theater/marketing for you.
Ross Duffer does note that there are references to the play sprinkled around the show’s fifth season, but his brother was quick to make it very clear that no theatrical knowledge will be required to understand anything in the show’s final endzone push, which will continue to be happening through the very last minutes of 2025. “You absolutely do not have to have seen the play to understand,” Matt Duffer reassured fans once more. “They’re Easter eggs more than anything.”
