Still confused? The Stranger Things play explained where the Upside Down leads, properly

Are you still confused about what the Upside Down is after the latest Stranger Things episodes? Was Erica and Mr Clark yelling “wormhole” a hundred times not enough of an explanation for you? Fear not, because the Stranger Things stage play did explain what that other dimension beyond the Upside Down is. Here’s a handy guide to the lore you missed out on.

The Upside Down is a wormhole to the Abyss/Dimension X

In volume two of Stranger Things season five, Dustin finally caught up with the fan theories and clocked that the Upside Down is a wormhole to another dimension. The Upside Down isn’t an alternate reality, or anything like that. It’s just a very large, very elaborate tunnel linking Hawkins to a different dimension.

This alternate dimension is the dusty yellow realm. It’s where the Mind Flayer and the Demogorgons and whatnot are really from. We saw El (accidentally) banish Vecna there during a flashback in season four. It’s the place where the physical bodies of Vecna and those 12 kidnapped kids are (although the children other than Holly don’t know this, as their minds are larking about within Vecna’s mind).

So, it’s canon that hell is like southwest USA
(Image via Netflix)

The Abyss was a really big part of the Stranger Things play

On the Netflix show, the characters are calling this other dimension the Abyss (which is a DnD reference). This place has already appeared in other parts of Stranger Things lore, but under a different name.

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Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened in London in November 2023, and New York in April 2025. You’re forgiven if you didn’t fork out the cash to see it. But the play contained lots of crucial context about Henry/One/Vecna’s origins.

He first teleported to Dimension X from the cave (Image via Netflix)

In the play, characters call the Abyss “Dimension X”. In 1943, Dr Brenner’s dad was involved in a shady government experiment called Project Rainbow. Captain Brenner and his crew tried to turn their US navy ship invisible, but accidentally teleported to Dimension X. Things didn’t end well. Demogorgons killed most of the crew.

In the 1950s, Dr Brenner and various other scientists set up labs in Nevada. They tried to find a way to travel back to Dimension X. A Soviet spy stole some equipment, and hid in a cave. Henry randomly found this, and accidentally teleported to Dimension X. This is the bad memory which Max and Holly found within his mind in Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz. Mini Henry encountered lots of scary monsters, including the Mind Flayer. He returned to earth 12 hours later, but the whole experience messed him up. His blood was different, and he had superpowers.

There you go. I’ve saved you from spending a small fortune to see the stage show.

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