One of the most exciting developments in Stranger Things 4 was the introduction of Vecna – a new big-bad, a (formerly) human manifestation of the evil lurking in the Upside Down, ready to wage war on Eleven and her friends. Played by Jamie Campbell Bower, he proved a terrifying, nightmarish addition to the show, indebted to A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger and contributing to one of the show’s best-ever sequences in that heart-pounding ‘Running Up That Hill’ scene. But, as Stranger Things 5 looms, the journey of Vecna – aka Henry Creel, aka One – has only just begun.
As Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers tell Empire, the villain will be even more powerful in the final chapter. “We’ve been calling him Vecna 2.0, because he’s changed,” says Matt Duffer in our Stranger Things 5 issue. Those changes include powers that are effective in the real world of Hawkins, no longer tethered to the Upside Down. “He’s stronger and scarier than ever, with new real-world abilities,” teases Matt. “In Season 4, he was deadly because he could infiltrate your mind and manipulate you in that manner. Now he can kick your ass in truly violent ways, like Freddy on steroids.” One, two, Vecna’s coming for you…
While Vecna is about to get even more monstrous, it sounds like he’ll be more human in a way too, picking up where Season 4 and stage show Stranger Things: The First Shadow left off. “Vecna was a human. Vecna was a child. Vecna was a boy who felt like he could never fit in anywhere,” says Jamie Campbell Bower. “He was quite a lonely figure to me — this very sad boy who really only needed to be cared for. You’ll see more in Season 5, so I’m hesitant to say too much. But from the pain he’d suffered, he wanted to create a better world. Or what he envisaged as a better world…” Maybe our view of Stranger Things’ scariest villain is about to get turned upside down.
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.