Ever since she came into the lives of Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers and Lucas Sinclair, the mysterious girl known as Eleven has always been a little different. Particularly since she grew up in a lab, where her telekinetic powers were stoked, poked, and prodded. Over the course of the series, Millie Bobby Brown’s shaven-headed hero has used her mind to flip trucks, interface with inter-dimensional rifts, communicate with other psyches, and face down the most terrifying beasts of the Upside Down. And now, as she faces her final fight against Vecna in Stranger Things 5, Eleven is taking things up another level. (Twelve?)
Following the events of Stranger Things 4 – which teed up an almighty endgame for our heroes in its finale, as the boundary between the Upside Down and Hawkins disintegrated – Eleven has been hard at work. She “has been in training when we met her,” co-creator Ross Duffer tells Empire in our Stranger Things 5 issue. “She’s not suddenly like Neo or Superman, flying through the sky, but she’s definitely stronger now.” Just see the exclusive image below, which sees her leaping over a bus; you can see Brown preparing for the stunt above too.
Get ready for an Eleven who – to borrow some Star Wars terminology – is moving further away from Padawan status. “She has better control over her powers and can use them in more innovative ways,” Matt Duffer teases. “The closest example, I’d say, is probably the Force.”
For Brown, the real power of Eleven – and the rest of Stranger Things’ beloved characters – is in the meaning they hold for the fans. “I think the show’s legacy will be the impact it’s had on other people, not us,” she reflects as the series comes to an end. “How it has encouraged them to just be themselves. That’s everything. That is so, so special.” Friends (and Millie Bobby Brown) don’t lie.
Read Empire’s full Stranger Things 5 cover story – going to the Duffer brothers’ HQ to get the inside scoop on the final season, and speaking to Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Jamie Campbell Bower and more for a new oral history of the show – in the December 2025 issue, on sale Thursday 23 October. Pre-order a copy online here. Stranger Things 5 comes to Netflix from 27 November.