The Duffer Brothers have answered some of the pertinent questions fans may have in their mind following the premiere of Stranger Things Season 5 on Netflix.
(Spoilers ahead)
In an interview with US-based entertainment magazine Variety, show creators Matt and Ross Duffer delved into Will’s “awakening”, the explosive climax, Max’s deployment, the return of Eight, and the attack on the Wheeler house.
Does Will have Eleven’s powers now? Or is it something different? The Duffer Brothers have an answer. “It’s different (in the sense) that he’s able to channel Vecna’s powers. But they’re all related. Vecna and Eleven, their powers are similar. The powers aren’t within him. He’s able to channel these powers from Vecna and use it, sort of puppeteering,” Ross Duffer said.
“He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive. You’ll see how far he can take it as you continue to watch. But that’s how he’s able to manipulate the monster. So he can’t open a door, because the door is not part of the hive mind,” Matt added.
Will did not get his powers because Vecna grabbed him, the creators said. “He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind,” Matt said. “If he’s not close to the hive mind, he’s not able to access or tap it,” Ross explained, with Matt adding that it’s “proximity-based”.
If Will wasn’t taken to the Upside Down, he would not have his powers. That is how he is different from Eleven, the creators said.
“We’ve been talking about Will having powers for as long as I can really remember,” Ross revealed. Recalling past events, Matt shared, “He had a dark version of it in Season 2 — he was connected to Vecna. He could see what he saw, but he didn’t realise that at the time he was able to tap into it in a way and use it against Vecna. That’s something he doesn’t learn till this season. It took us a while to build there, but it was something we always intended to do.”
Robin’s pep talk about self-acceptance was a major contributing factor to Will’s awakening. “Throughout the seasons, he’s been a little more fearful than the others. He hasn’t been a leader. He hasn’t accepted himself in the way that some of our characters have. So I think it was really talking about if he really is able to at least start to accept himself for who he is, will that give him the kind of strength that he needs in order to access these powers?” Ross said.
Vecna underestimates Will during the climax and that’s why he doesn’t kill him, the creators explained. “He perceives him in the way that so many others have in his life, which is as weak, as nothing, as incapable of achieving anything great,” Matt shared.
Will, Mike and Jonathan still look young like in the previous seasons. However, almost four years have passed since Season 4 and the actors have all grown significantly. The creators said that it was possible due to the effects by New Zealand-based digital visual effects company Weta.
“It just felt absolutely right to start with a flashback of Will, and then you just turn to Betsy and then ultimately Weta to do it,” Matt said.
About revealing where Max really is, Ross said, “From the end of Season 4 when we kept her in the coma, we knew she was trapped in Vecna’s mindscape, and we knew that was going to be part of her journey, at least for Season 5. But it finally clicked when we realised that Holly could be there as well, and then the other kids. That’s when her storyline really came to life.”
Season 5 reveals that Eight (Linnea Berthelsen), Eleven’s “sister”, has been kept captive by the military. Eight’s storyline was abruptly dropped earlier in the series. “As we were breaking the season, we realised that bringing her back really helped us with the Eleven storyline and how we wanted to wrap her story up,” Ross said.