Jamie Campbell Bower in 'Stranger Things: Season 5.' Courtesy of Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the series finale of Stranger Things.] Jamie Campbell Bower was more in the dark for the final season of Stranger Things than he had ever been. When the actor who plays the big bad in the Duffer Brothers-created series joined Netflix's sci-fi mega-hit back in season four, Bower was able to methodically discuss and prep to play his villain, who had three identities that season: Vecna, Henry Creel and 001 - the first patient at Dr. Brenner's (Matthew Modine) Hawkins Laboratory who would spark the program that led to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Related Stories Movies How Kate Winslet's Decades-Long Acting Career Prepared Her for Her Directorial Debut TV Nell Fisher Doesn't Think 'Stranger Things' Could Have Ended Any Other Way In the final season, Stranger Things 5, that has released in three parts over the 2025 holiday season, Bower added a fourth identity: Mr. Whatsit, the mysterious man who abducted Hawkins children by masquerading his master plan with a Mr. Rogers-like kindness. After eight episodes, however, Eleven and the core Stranger Things gang finally figured out how to defeat Vecna/Henry/Mr. Whatsit, with Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) delivering the final deadly blow as justice for taking her son, Will (Noah Schnapp), which kickstarted the series, and for hurting so many others in Hawkins. Bower didn't know his character's fate going into the final season. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer, who also directed the series finale, said it took them extra long to write and stick the landing, which meant the cast received the final script later in production on season five. "There were paragraphs of text messages that I have sent Matt and Ross during this process about Henry and Vecna and Whatsit," Bower tells The Hollywood Reporter of the thought and care he has put into the role. "It takes up a lot of brain space when you're playing a character like that. You're constantly thinking about it. [But] it became less lonely as the journey went on, and particularly as we got to episodes seven and eight [the finale]." Below, Bower talks to The Hollywood Reporter about leaving Stranger Things behind after the Duffers closed the door on this Hawkins story. *** You previously told us that when you saw a photo of yourself on the last day of filming, that you looked like a man who had just dropped the weight of the world. You do seem a lot lighter. Thank you, I'm feeling a lot lighter. It's been really nice to unpack these finale episodes - five, six and seven - and with the finale out, I'll be fully there. Your physical transformation into Vecna last season required hours of makeup and less CGI than the audience expected. How different was the process to become Vecna this final season? Last season was full prosthetics, head to toe, which was an application time of about seven-and-a-half hours. This season was an application time of about four hours, and it was much more of a cross-collaborative process between departments. The prosthetics started here [gesturing to his torso] and went up to my head. My arm was prosthetic. I still had my long-fingered hand and my nails, too. Everything else was a motion capture suit that was painted vine-y with purple dots all over. So while it wasn't full prosthetic, what you are seeing in this final season is me. The physicality is still me, but it allowed me to have conversations with [costume/prosthetic makeup team] Amy Paris and Michael Meher and Barrie Gower about what we wanted and what we needed from the suit as we went into it. What were new things you needed to be able to do in the suit? I needed American football pads on my shoulders. I wanted to make sure that the scale and size of Vecna was still there; that the presence was there for the kids. Michael needed me to hold my arms in a particular way, because we were missing certain parts of Vecna this season [from being attacked last season] - hence why he looked so snatched! I assume you saw the Ozempic memes on social media? I kind of participated in the them; I said it was from Zumba. (Laughs.) We put two blocks on my side so I could hold my arms in a particular way. We put three-inch risers in my shoes that we could take up and down, depending on what we needed in front of the camera. Those were little personal touches that I wanted or that would make the process easier overall. I said to just make sure that presence and power was still there, because there is a difference between seeing somebody in full garb with regards to seeing somebody in a suit. Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven facing off with Vecna in Stranger Things: Season 5. Courtesy of Netflix You already had multiple