Vecna

Lore & Background

Vecna is loosely based on the Dungeons & Dragons character, sharing the same name, much like the other antagonists of the series including the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer. The Duffer Brothers have stated that they have planned to introduce Vecna since the development of the first season. They were offered the chance to introduce the character in spin-off comics or books, but they refused as they needed time to develop the character and figure out what role he would play in the series.

For the creation of the character, the brothers were inspired by iconic villains such as Pinhead, Pennywise and Freddy Krueger. This was with the intention of creating a meaner, darker, and more menacing villain for the show, having the ability to traumatize its victims before killing them in a horrifying way by breaking their bones and gouging their eyes out. Henry Creel was born in Nevada in 1947 to Victor, a World War II veteran, and Virginia Creel.

He also had an older sister, Alice. Throughout his childhood, Henry was treated as an outcast, and the majority of his cohorts considered him "broken" beyond repair. At some point, Henry visited a mineshaft in some caves near Rachel, Nevada, where he encountered a scientist who shot him in the hand despite his asking if he needed help before Henry bludgeoned the man with a rock. Opening a case in the scientist's possession, Henry touched a stone made of the Mind Flayer's particles.

Henry was transported to another dimension where the entity told him to "find me" and infected the young boy through his hand wound. The scientist tried to warn Henry to resist the Mind Flayer, or it would consume all, but Henry killed him with his newfound powers. This memory would subsequently be blocked by the Mind Flayer to keep Henry from discovering the truth, manifesting as a cave in his mind that the adult Henry was too afraid to enter.

Reader's Guide

In 1983, after Eleven unwittingly opened the Mothergate and created the Upside Down, Vecna chose not to act directly, instead allowing a lone Demogorgon to explore Hawkins and acquire a human host, that being Will Byers. Although Will managed to avoid him for a week in the Upside Down, he was eventually captured by the Demogorgon, and was brought to Vecna in the Hawkins Library. He tells Will that they will do "such beautiful things" together, and infects him with a tentacle, establishing Will's connection to the hive mind.

Although Will was later rescued by his friends and family, he was changed by the ordeal, beginning to see flashes of the Upside Down. In 1984, Vecna and the Mind Flayer launched their first attempt to invade Earth. Harnessing Will's connection to the hive mind, he has the Mind Flayer possess him, using him to both telekinetically build a series of tunnels from the Mothergate under Hawkins, and to spy on his enemies, having him trick the soldiers of Hawkins Lab into entering the tunnels and getting killed by adolescent Demogorgons.

However, the plan fails when Eleven intervenes and closes the Mothergate, killing all life from the Upside Down that entered Earth, with Joyce Byers burning the piece of the Mind Flayer out of Will's body. In 1985, the Soviets opened a gate of their own, allowing for the piece of the Mind Flayer that was burned out of Will to become active again. Vecna has several residents of Hawkins "flayed" and put under his control, using their bodies to form a giant flesh monster to kill Eleven. Although the monster was killed when the Soviet gate was closed, Vecna's influence continued.

Did You Know?

• Jamie Campbell Bower was cast on November 20, 2020, under the original name of 'Peter Ballard,' a friendly orderly at a psychiatric hospital.
• Make-up artist Barrie Gower provided the look for Vecna; Bower had to wear a prosthetic suit for over 7–10 hours every filming session.
• The character is portrayed by Louis McCartney in the prequel play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which explores Henry's backstory prior to the events of the series.
• For his performance, Bower received a nomination for the Best Villain in a Series award at the Critics' Choice Super Awards.