“Stranger Things” fans, grab your Eggos, because Netflix just dropped the first five minutes of Season 5, and holy shit, it’s a game-changer! If you’re a Will Byers fan, you’re about to have your heart broken and your mind blown. This flashback dramatically rewrites the history of the Upside Down’s biggest villain.
Get this: The clip reveals that Will (played by a de-aged Noah Schnapp) first came face-to-face with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) years before the vine-covered creep started terrorizing Hawkins in Season 4!
The clip opens with a terrified, gooey, younger Will hiding in his beloved fort, Castle Byers, in the Upside Down. He tries to soothe his nerves by singing his anthem, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ When a Demogorgon smashes into the fort, Will blasts it with a shotgun—a move that would make Nancy Wheeler proud! He bolts, scrambling up a massive tree to hide.
Will watches the creatures prowl below, but a desperate leap to another branch goes wrong. He misses, crash-lands in the dirt (his backpack briefly snagging his fall), and the Demogorgon drags his unconscious body to its horrifying lair. Everything up to this point fits the story he told Joyce and the crew later…As Will lies helpless in the dark cave, Vecna approaches. He strings the boy up and ominously whispers the line that will change everything: “At long last, we can begin. We are going to do such beautiful things together, William. Such beautiful things.”
Vecna then connects one of his gross, sinewy vines directly to Will’s mouth. He starts pumping some unknown substance into him. Since Will appears unconscious the whole time, he might not even remember this terrifying first encounter. This could explain why he never mentioned it before. This revelation sets a chilling new precedent for the final season.
In season 5, our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine. Their hunt for Eleven has forced her back into hiding. The final battle is looming, and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone standing together, one last time.
Mark your calendars for the beginning of the end! “Stranger Things” Season 5 premieres on Netflix on November 26, with Volume 2 dropping on Christmas Day, and the series finale hitting on December 31.
