SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details from the first five minutes of the upcoming final installment of Netflix‘s Stranger Things.
It’s the beginning of the end of Stranger Things, and there are still many unanswered questions about the supernatural occurrences plaguing Hawkins, Indiana.
The first five minutes of Season 5, which were unveiled following the Los Angeles premiere on November 6, begin to unravel one of the biggest mysteries that has been looming over the franchise for the past four seasons: What really happened to Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in the Upside Down?
However, while Stranger Things 5 establishes ties to the first season early on, creators Matt and Ross Duffer says they didn’t really start thinking about those connections until Season 2.
“Season 1, to be honest, we were just shocked that we had a show. We had no thought in our minds that it was going to be ongoing. The minute we started working on Season 2 is when we started talking about more of a sentient being behind all of this,” Ross Duffer tells Deadline. “So that’s really where we started to build out most of the mythology, which became Vecna and Henry and One.”
The opening sequence — spoiler alert — sees 12-year-old Will trying and failing to escape Vecna’s clutches after hiding in Castle Byers for about six days (the flashback takes place on November 12, 1983). When a Demogorgon comes searching for him to take him to Vecna, Will is prepared with a shotgun.
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5
He, impressively, holds his own against the creature for quite some time before he eventually falls out of a tree, which is what ultimately gives the Demogorgon the upper hand.
“The first five minutes was so gratifying for me,” Schnapp tells Deadline, explaining that it unlocked a piece of the puzzle for him, too. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I finally know what happened,’ but it’s helpful, honestly, to play and perform.”
Schnapp revealed that, despite playing the character for all these years, he didn’t know much about what he endured after his 1983 disappearance “until we read the scripts at the table read, really.”
“I mean, I had an idea, maybe, after Season 4,” he added, explaining that he and the Duffer brothers “talked on the phone about wanting to explore … why [Will] was taken in the first place, but not to the extent we see, until I really read the script.”
According to Schnapp, the sequence was “not at all” like he’d imagined Will’s experience in the Upside Down to have been.
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“I mean, everyone thought he was very weak, and I thought he was hiding the whole time,” he said. “I didn’t know he was running and climbing a tree and shooting. It’s the setup for the season that he’s stronger than we may have believed, which helps in the performance as well, to know as much as I can.”
There are multiple Season 1 references in that scene, including Will muttering The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” — a song that his older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) introduced him to for some reprieve from their parents’ fighting — to himself as he hides from the Demogorgon.
There’s also the fact that the Demogorgon drags Will to the Upside Down’s Hawkins Library, where Vecna is waiting for him. This is also where Will was later found by his mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Police Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour).
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“At long last, we can begin,” Vecna says ominously as the tentacles lining the library hold Will in a vice grip up against the wall, stroking the young boy’s face as he purrs: “You and I, we are going to do such beautiful things together, William.”
The opening scene is a huge revelation for the series, revealing a crucial element of the story that signals to viewers that everything they’ve seen up to this point will come full circle eventually.
Whatever questions you may still have about where all of this is headed, worry not. Answers will come in due time.
Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in Season 2 of ‘Stranger Things’
Netflix
“We also knew that there were mysteries that we hadn’t explained yet: Why Will was taken and how he managed to survive that time,” Ross Duffer continued. “So when we started working on Season 5 we were like, ‘Well, that’s the first thing we need to go back and talk about.’”
Stranger Things 5 premieres with four episodes on November 26, followed by three additional episodes on December 25. The finale will debut on New Year’s Eve. All episodes will come available at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
Dessi Gomez contributed to this report.