Stranger Things Star Says Vecna and Will Mirror Harry and Voldemort — The Side-by-Side Is Uncanny

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 goes out with a wild swing, and apparently we have Hogwarts to thank. Warning: major spoilers ahead.

Quick refresher on that finale

• Vecna finally crosses over from the Upside Down into Hawkins, makes his big entrance, and literally lifts Will into the air.
• He lays out his plan to take the children of Hawkins and use them to "reshape the world," reminding Will that Will showed him it could be done years ago.
• Vecna drops Will, slips back into the Upside Down, and sics the Demogorgons on the gang.
• Will, pushed to the brink, channels his emotions, taps their weird psychic link, and uses Vecna’s own power against the Demogorgons. Bye, monsters.
• The implication lands hard: whatever Vecna did to Will back in 1983 might be the exact thing that can bring Vecna down.

So why the Harry Potter deja vu?

No, you are not imagining the Harry Potter vibes. Noah Schnapp says the Will–Vecna dynamic was intentionally shaped with that wizard-and-dark-lord relationship in mind, and he even did a homework binge to lock it in.

"For Will, we start to learn the parallels between Will and Vecna, and it almost felt very Harry Potter to me that I had to go back and re-watch the movies, because the Harry Potter-Voldemort relationship felt very close to Will and Vecna," Schnapp told Deadline, noting that those parallels will be even clearer in volume 2. "So just kind of exploring those parallels and what that means."

It is not just on the page either. A fan post on Twitter lined up a shot from episode 4 with a moment from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the side-by-side is uncannily similar. That post made the rounds on November 28, 2025, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

What that might mean for volume 2

If we are following the blueprint Schnapp is hinting at, Will using Vecna’s power against him feels less like a twist and more like destiny. Harry ultimately turns Voldemort’s own magic back on him; Will might be headed for a similar endgame with Vecna. The show basically flagged it by making Will’s 1983 connection the possible key to Vecna’s downfall. Subtle? Not really. Effective? Very.

Release timing

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix. Volume 2 lands on Christmas Day. If you need the exact drop times, check the season release schedule.