Even the Guy Who Plays Vecna Didn’t Know How ‘Stranger Things’ Would End

Now that the first volume of Stranger Things season five is out in the world, fans have more speculation to gnaw on while they ponder its impending endgame. Show creators the Duffer Brothers have gone on the record saying they’ve long known how the story would wrap up, though getting there has required a pinch of retconning. That’s seen most notably in season five’s opening moments, which showed that Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) was indeed present when li’l Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was snatched into the Upside Down in season one, despite the big bad not actually appearing in the story proper until season four.

If you think Bower might be the one cast member who had a clue as to where season five was leading when he showed up to film—well, think again. He’d been in that privileged space for season four, he explained in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter. But when it came time to make the show’s final episodes, the Duffers didn’t give him any extra morsels, aside from what he was able to beg out of them.

“I wish I had known more than I did. Obviously for [season] four, I went into that knowing so much more than perhaps anybody else on the cast. I felt really sad going into [season] five, not knowing as much as I did, not having that power within me,†he told THR. “I don’t think Matt and Ross [Duffer] would mind me telling you this, that as I’m receiving the scripts and going through the process, I’m firing over text message—just paragraphs of messages of questions, to the point where I think I was in the U.S. and flying somewhere, not even on my way back from the table read. I called them with one very specific question. I was like, ‘I really, really need you to tell me what this is.’ And they were like, ‘Okay, fine,’ and they eventually relented. I managed to get it out of them. But I was as in the dark [as] everybody else.â€

Of course, with the episodes now all in the can, Bower obviously knows what’s happening next. But you won’t be getting any spoilers out of Vecna. All he’ll say is that season five’s version of the character, which expands on the Henry Creel backstory as well as the monster he becomes, felt like “quite a meaty bite to have, because as an actor, there are so many times where what you want to be doing is playing the truth, and the truth in this scenario is clearly that Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) is being used in some way, and he’s not telling her,†Bower said.

“And that is a terrifying thing to sit opposite a child and have to lie; that means it’s really, really scary. As this season progresses, you will see more. Those were moments where that felt like a really big sigh; like a huge breath out. As an actor, it’s a privilege. Personally, it’s also very terrifying. It’s very, very scary to play. A big undertaking.â€

Stranger Things season five continues December 25 and 31 on Netflix.

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