Vecna Beware: Stranger Things Creators Tease a Game-Changing Power for the Rest of Season 5

Stranger Things is back on Netflix with season 5, volume 1, and the mid-season finale goes for broke: huge set piece, bigger twist. If you thought the show had maxed out on chaos, it very much has not.

Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things season 5 volume 1.

That finale detour into full-on monster mayhem

• Episode 4 ends with a tear opening between the Upside Down and a military base in Hawkins, and a swarm of Demogorgons stampedes through.
• Soldiers get shredded. Lucas, Joyce, and Mike barely make it out of the mess.
• Then Will steps in. He taps into his long-standing link to Vecna, seizes control of the Demogorgons, and literally crushes them by snapping their bones with his mind. If it looks familiar, it is: it mirrors what Vecna did to Max in season 4.

So... Will has powers now

We have technically been building to this since Will was taken by the season 1 big bad. The Duffers say one of the earliest season 5 ideas was: what if Will could flip that connection and use it against the villains? That is exactly what happens. He channels his emotions through his best friend Mike Wheeler, finds a grip on that Vecna tether, and turns it into serious firepower.

'If anyone was going to be the key to ending Vecna, it needed to be Will.'

That comes from Matt Duffer, who also points out Will has been carrying around a lot of unresolved feelings. Once he stops trying to bury all of that, the door to those abilities opens.

A nerdy little detail you might miss

Noah Schnapp says Will’s power stance was originally going to mimic Eleven’s, then the team switched it up to an outstretched, palm-up hand — the idea being that Will is pulling power from Vecna rather than projecting his own. It is a small change that sells the whole concept.

What this sets up

The volume 1 capper is meant to bring Will’s story full circle: from the kid who got taken to the kid who might be the reason the monster finally goes down. Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) calls Will’s new abilities a game-changer — suddenly the group isn’t wildly outmatched, which is not great news for Vecna.

Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 is streaming now. Volume 2 lands on Christmas Day.