Warning! This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 5, episode 8, “The Rightside Up.”
One of the biggest mysteries left regarding Vecna’s origins will be addressed in Netflix’s upcoming Stranger Things spinoff. In the feature-length Stranger Things series finale, it was revealed that the Mind Flayer had always been the main big bad in the Upside Down and the Abyss; Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) was simply one of his “vessels.”
During a flashback/dream sequence inspired by the Stranger Things prequel play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a young Henry Creel (Maksim Blatt) finds a mysterious glowing rock in a briefcase, which gives Henry/001 his unusual powers and a connection to the Mind Flayer, kickstarting Stranger Things’ terrible cycle of violence. Though the finale only provided a glimpse of the rock, Stranger Things’ creators, the Duffer Brothers, have promised answers.
In an interview with Variety following the premiere of Stranger Things’ final episode, the Duffer Brothers confirmed that the story of that red, glowing rock will play a part in Stranger Things‘ upcoming spinoff. “The spinoff is going to delve into that and explain that, and you’re going to understand it,” Matt Duffer said, when asked how they would best describe what the rock actually is.
Even so, the Stranger Things co-creator was quick to rein in “people’s expectations” about the spinoff:
“It’s a completely different mythology. So it’s not a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that. It’s very fresh and very new, but yes, it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining.”
The spinoff, originally announced in 2022 following the premiere of Stranger Things season 4, will not be directly connected to the story of Hawkins and the Upside Down, nor will it involve any of Stranger Things’ current characters. “No common characters,” Duffer told Variety. “We’re actually really excited, and it’s very exciting to work with a clean slate: completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology.”
Audiences shouldn’t expect the Stranger Things world to grow into something as expansive as Star Wars, however. Weeks before Stranger Things season 5 premiered, Matt Duffer told Variety that it’s “so different from something like Star Wars,” and that the spinoff would instead maintain the flagship show’s “brand” and “style of storytelling,” involving “kids, adventures, sci-fi/fantasy, rather than increasingly expand what could become an insanely convoluted mythology.”
Similarly, Ross Duffer told Variety that this spinoff, plus any potential future spinoffs, would “live in a bit of a different world”:
“There’s going to be connective tissue, but you’re almost anthologizing in a way. Because we’re not ‘Star Wars.’ We can’t be like, ‘Oh, now we’re on this planet.’”
Ross Duffer confirmed that they would resume work on the spinoff after the weekend, having taken a few days off following the release of the finale. “We’ve been working on it on and off,” Duffer shared. Though the brothers are “heavily creatively involved” in the series and will be listed as its creators, the duo won’t be the spinoff’s showrunners.
Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown), Will’s (Noah Schnapp), Vecna’s, and the rest of the Stranger Things crew’s work is finally done, but it will likely be a while before the glowing rock’s mysteries are revealed. In the meantime, viewers will be reunited with some of the show’s most beloved characters in Stranger Things‘ upcoming animated series, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, set in the winter between seasons 2 and 3.
All episodes of Stranger Things season 5 are available now, only on Netflix.
- Release Date
-
2016 – 2025-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Showrunner
-
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
