SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Stranger Things 5 Volume 2.
Jamie Campbell Bower‘s Vecna only gets more terrifying in Volume 2 of the final season, which sees the monster get another step closer to enacting his plan to merge the human world with another dimension.
As viewers learn over the course of the three episodes, the Upside Down is a wormhole that has connected Hawkins to this alternate dimension that Dustin dubs “The Abyss,” which they believe is the true home of the mind flayer, the demogorgons, and the rest of the evils that have been haunting them for the past four years — even, it seems, Henry Creel.
The characters have been completely unable to locate Vecna all season, because, as it turns out, he’s been hiding in this alternate dimension that they were unaware of and can’t access (since it is situated thousands of yards above them). While they’re unraveling this mystery, Vecna is busy trying to keep Holly (Nell Fisher) and Max (Sadie Sink) from escaping his mind prison. The girls realize that, in order to get out, they’ll need to trek their way through Henry’s memories instead of their own, leading to a heartbreaking moment where they witness a very young Henry murder a man he encounters…in a cave. This seems to give insights on why Henry won’t enter the cave that Max and Holly have been hiding in within his mind, though there are still some questions left to be answered in the finale.
Watch on Deadline
While Max manages to get out, Holly isn’t so lucky. By the end of the penultimate episode, she’s back in his clutches and Henry begins his process to merge the worlds, teasing one final face off to come in the 2-hour finale.
“[Episode] 8 comes in steaming hot, right off the back of 7. It’s go time. It’s really, really explosive,” Campbell Bower tells Deadline.
In the interview below, the actor unpacks his descent further into the madness of Henry Creel for Volume 2 of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.
DEADLINE: Was any of this information we’ve learned about Henry since Season 4 pitched to you when you took the role? How much did you initially know?
JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER: I don’t think any of it was pitched to me when I joined. I do remember towards the end of filming the Henry portion of Season 4, Matt and Ross, sort of, we had a little aside conversation, and they were like, ‘This has been amazing. We were always going to bring you back as Vecna, but now we feel like we should bring you back more as you.’ and I was just like, ‘Cool. Sounds great. Whatever you guys want.’ So, with regards to the story arc, none of it was pitched to me, and I think it was, from what I’ve heard and read from Matt and Ross, it was something that sort of developed in the in-between time.
DEADLINE: I do really enjoy that we get to see more of Henry this season. And I’m curious how it was for you working with some of these younger kids, especially having to be so cruel to them? What did you gain from that experience? Because they’re giving you so much back emotionally. And I wonder, for you as such a as a more seasoned, older actor, how that was to kind of get to play in that sandbox with them.
CAMPBELL BOWER: It was awesome. I mean, there were definitely times where it was terrifying for me. I’ve been vocal about this today and when we were discussing the first chapters as well. The Mr. Whatsit side of things, this is a presentation, and the intention is buried. So when you’re sat opposite a child, burying the intention, children, naturally, can see through the BS and lies. It’s a very terrifying experience at times to be sat there…but it was also a lot of fun too, because the kids were so great. There was so many funny moments where we’d be playing games between takes, and particularly that last scene in Episode 7, where we’re all sat round the table, it was one of the first times where, I mean, you know, obviously, aside from the beginning of five, we were all together, and we had a lovely day. It was just a beautiful, fun experience to play with them. They’re so great and so receptive, and it was a joy to be able to get to know them and work with them. All of them are amazing. I love Jake dearly. I just think he’s the loveliest boy, and I got to know his family too, and he’s just a great kid. I’m so glad that the fan base and the world has taken Derek into their hearts. It was always the thing that I hoped most for him. I was like, ‘He’s so cool. I hope that that happens,’ and it has, and I’m so happy for him.
DEADLINE: You’ve talked about Henry and especially Vecna’s head being a hard place to live in as an actor, and I’m curious how this was for you to get to unpack some of what happened to him as he was a kid? I’m thinking particularly about the scene where we get to see Henry as a young boy kill that scientist in the cave, and that’s a really jarring scene.
CAMPBELL BOWER: It is something that I thought about going into Season 4, even, and had qualified between 4 and 5 when I went to go and see the play. So, getting to play those scenes out, I felt at times like a huge release, and it was also really important for me to go into those scenes understanding the trauma and the experience to bring that level of humanity forward. I’ve been describing Henry this season, and the way I approached it as, like, memory retention, but buried far away. So when I get to uncover that, dig that up, it does humanize the experience and the character for me, because there are times where I feel wildly inhuman, monstrous, and I know that sounds obvious, but like truly monstrous. So I took great pleasure in those moments for sure.
DEADLINE: There’s a scene in Episode [5] that I really like where we see in real time Henry kind of transitioned from One to Vecna. How did you think about the subtle differences in the evolution of that character throughout those periods of time to be able to pull off something like that?
CAMPBELL BOWER: I mean, I think it was always that thing of, like, the mask failing, it falling away, and where I got to with Henry at the end of Episode 7 of Season 4 was the way in which I wanted to be bringing him back when we saw him again. It was in that emotional space. Having lived in Mr. Whatsit already in Season 5, there is a difference for me between them, subtle though it may be, there is a difference. So yes, there are emotional differences and difficulties, but also physical [ones]. That particular moment, the physicality of that was something that we worked on with, actually, with somebody who works in the video game space, and using things like called nodes, which are like particular moments that you strike and that you’ll come back to. So the shift between Whatsit and Henry was something that we worked on off set prior to shooting it.
I was going through my videos the other day, and I’m there on the stage doing it, trying out different things, trying out how I wanted my head to move and where my arms were going to be. Yes, that is a very short moment, but it is something that we spent a long time on, just to make sure that it was right and that it felt cool. So much of that is about intuition and the work that goes into it beforehand, so that when you get into the space, it’s just like, ‘Oh, this is what naturally these characters would do here.’ It was really fun. It was really cool to do the sort of more shape-shifty bits. In England, we have three exams in your years between, like, 13 and 18, and the middle one is called your AS (Advanced Subsidiary) Levels, and I did dance AS Levels. I got to lean quite heavily into that dance side of my childhood, which was really fun. It was nice to know that that was still in there, and, God, like it hasn’t completely gone.
DEADLINE: How you view, emotionally, that separation between Henry and Vecna? Is it just a loss of humanity? How do you make that distinction in your head when you’re playing those characters?
CAMPBELL BOWER: I mean, it depends on what we’re referring to as a loss of humanity, really. Because, is it the distance from the heart, or is it like monstrous in the sense of monsters? I think Henry was so close, was much closer to innocence, was much closer to the experiences, and then when he was sent to that slippery, veiny demise at the end of [Season] 4, it became about resentment, and at that point, it felt like humanity had gone. It felt like the possibility of love was so far away. I refer to love as that thing that keeps us alive, and so I think Henry, if we look at it this way, like Henry is close to innocence, Whatsit is further removed, and Vecna is just like…it’s impossible — virtually impossible — for there to be anything that feels like love.
DEADLINE: What are you excited for from the finale, and what you ultimately hope people take away from this character that you’ve spent so much time thinking about and playing?
CAMPBELL BOWER: So with regards to what we can expect for the finale, I am genuinely, really excited for Episode 8 to come out. I feel like Episode 7 is — because I obviously know what’s coming in 8, and we do leave on quite, in my opinion, knowing what’s coming, quite a hefty cliffhanger, and 8 comes in steaming hot, right off the back of 7. It’s go time. It’s really, really explosive. I’m really excited for people to see that, because I know how it felt to work on it, too, and that’s really cool. What do I hope people take away from this character? Wow, I’m still in process on that. Like, I’m genuinely still in process on that, because I spent so much time in it, and I don’t know if I can yet see the wood from the trees. I’m not sure. So much of this character is based on the idea of loneliness. So much of this character is based on the idea of salvation. I had to fall in love, and I did fall in love with Henry Creel. I had to want to protect him. I had to want to nurture him and love him, because that’s my duty as the person that’s playing him. I have to understand him, and I don’t know how it feels to be a viewer, yet, watching that from afar, I don’t know. I’d have to give myself another six months to truly be able to absorb that.