Stranger Things 4's Vecna Reveals What The Last Day Of Filming Was Really Like
This article contains spoilers for the entirety of "Stranger Things" Season 4
"Stranger Things 4," which was released in two parts over June and July, is once again the binge-watch of the summer. The massive popularity of the '80s nostalgia-fest has turned its young cast of previous unknowns into bona fide stars, and Season 4 has seen over 1 billion hours of viewing on Netflix, shattering previous records for the streaming giant.
Season 4 of "Stranger Things" ended with an ominous cliff-hanger, as the Upside-Down finally ruptures into Hawkins after the machinations of the season's villain, Vecna, culminate in the temporary death of Max (Sadie Sink), breaking the seal between worlds. With only one, final season left, it's clear that there will be a final battle against the dark realm and Vecna for the fate of Hawkins and beyond.
Played by Jamie Campbell Bower, Vecna is a contender for the most frightening villain "Stranger Things" has ever put to screen. Once a boy named Henry who discovered his paranormal abilities and used them to murder his family, he was the first patient Doctor Brenner (Matthew Modine) experimented on, eventually putting a device inside his head to prevent him from carrying out his violent fantasies. But after tricking Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) into removing it, he killed the rest of the children in Brenner's facility. Eleven unleashed the full force of her powers on him, sealing him in the Upside-Down, where he transformed into a disgusting, tentacled monster hell-bent on revenge. In fact, Vecna is so hideous that when Bower showed up on set in his prostheses, Millie Bobby Brown burst into tears.
For his part, Bower seems to have relished playing the character, carefully tweaking his acting method to enter the twisted mind of Vecna. Now, he's revealed what it felt like to wrap the season on the last day of filming.
Jamie Campbell Bower says the last day of filming Stranger Things 4 'just felt right'
The final scenes of Vecna in "Stranger Things 4" are brutal. The Upside-Down villain is set ablaze with Molotov cocktails, and then Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) repeatedly blasts him, point blank, with a sawed-off shotgun. His flaming and destroyed body is then defenestrated from the top-story window of his creepy old mansion. But however gruesome the scene may have been for Vecna, shooting that final sequence was a great day on set, according to Jamie Campbell Bower,
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the actor recalled shooting that final Vecna scene, which was also the last day of shooting on the season. "We were all together on that last day," Bower said. "I remember watching that shotgun scene particularly and I stood by the monitor with Matt and Ross [Duffer]...And she looked so cool." Bower presumably refers to Natalia Dyer wielding the abovementioned shotgun against Vecna. "I turned to the boys and I was like, 'That's amazing. She looks so dope. That's so sick.' And they were like, 'Right?' So that was really lovely to watch somebody else, you know, look badass on camera."
While it remains unconfirmed that Bowers will return as Vecna in the final season of "Stranger Things," the events of the Season 4 finale seem to suggest there's a strong chance he will, as it was all but confirmed by Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) that even after being burned, shot, and thrown from a building, Vecna yet survives and doesn't plan on licking his wounds for long. For the moment, Bower is pleased with his final Season 4 shoot, saying, "It just felt right. Everything felt right for the character."