Stranger Things: The First Shadow: Bower Makes Big Broadway Cameo

Posted in: Netflix, Stranger Things, TV | Tagged: stranger things

Stranger Things: The First Shadow: Bower Makes Big Broadway Cameo

Broadway's Stranger Things: The First Shadow had a special guest, with Netflix series star Jamie Campbell Bower making an on-stage cameo.

Published Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:37:03 -0600
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Jamie Campbell Bower makes a surprise Broadway cameo in Stranger Things: The First Shadow prequel play.
• Bower reprises his role as Henry Creel/Vecna, joining the cast on stage for a key scene at the Marquis Theatre.
• The First Shadow explores backstory of Vecna, focusing on Henry's origins and his pivotal battle with Eleven.
• Stranger Things season five references events and characters from The First Shadow as its story unfolds.

In this epic fifth and final season of Stranger Things, all bets are off, including the stage show The First Shadow, which received a cameo from Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the original Henry Creel/Vecna, on which the Broadway play is based as a prequel to the Matt and Ross Duffer Netflix series. The actor joined the stage performers in the final scene of the play on December 19th at the Marquis Theatre in New York City.

Stranger Things OG Henry Creel, Jamie Campbell Bower, Appears on Broadway's The First Shadow in a Cameo

Bower joined Stranger Things in season four as Vecna, revealed to be the primary antagonist, who supernaturally pulls the strings behind the horrors and terrorizes the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana. As Henry, he was the first psychically gifted youth being experimented on before his sinister intentions were revealed. After initially gaining the trust of Eleven/Jane Hopper (Millie Bobby Brown), the two eventually fight it out using their powers before Eleven pushes him through the portal to the Upside Down, as its searing, twisting demonic powers turn him into the Vecna.

The First Shadow goes more in-depth with Henry's backstory that the Netflix series touches upon, but the Broadway play avoids any plot points from season five. In Campbell's scene in the play, he takes over actor Louis McCartney, who plays Henry during the London and Broadway productions, as he recreates the pivotal season four fight with the young Eleven (Anika Boyle) in the Rainbow Room at Hawkins Lab.

Stranger Things season five does reference The First Shadow when Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), who's trapped psychically, discovers Henry's past in 1959, and a young Joyce Byers tries to promote Hawkins High's musical production of Oklahoma!. Part two of season five releases on Christmas Day, exclusively on Netflix, and the finale comes out on New Year's Eve simultaneously in theaters.

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