Warning: spoilers ahead for season 4 volume 2.
There are only two days to go until the release date of on … and we can feel the nerves and excitement reverberating around the world.
Fans can’t wait to discover what will happen to Eleven () and the rest of the gang next, particularly after Vecna’s true identity – Henry Creel, aka Number One () – was uncovered in the mind-bending finale.
During a recent chat with Metro.co.uk, Barrie Gower, the makeup effects department head on the series, teased what viewers can expect in the second part of the season, which will consist ofs.
He admitted that there wasn’t much he could say without revealing spoilers, but he did hint at how the reveal of Vecna’s backstory continues to fuel the villain’s story arc.
‘I can’t really say too much without giving stuff away obviously, but there’s a nod to what we’ve done in the final two episodes [in season four] right at the end of episode seven, where we see that story arc of Jamie Campbell Bower as the orderly and there’s the big reveal at the end of episode seven that we find out he’s obviously Vecna,’ he said.
‘So his transformation at the end of that episode as he’s kind of going through the netherworld into the Upside Down, that’s a bit of a nod as to where we might be taking him in the next episodes.’
Barrie continued: ‘Without giving too much away, there’s a lot of Vecna in the last two episodes, and there’s some quite exciting stuff we were able to do for it.’
While in previous seasons, the villain hasn’t been revealed straight away – as it took a short while before the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer’s appearances were revealed – that wasn’t the case with Vecna, who was shown in all his gorey glory from the get-go.
Barrie, who’s previously worked on productions including Game of Thrones and the latest James Bond film No Time To Die, explained how much work went into creating Vecna, and how ‘apprehensive’ his team felt for the world to see the fruits of their labour.
‘What’s been incredible about this whole process is that it’s been over two years in the making of creating Vecna and shooting him,’ he said.
‘Our team and I, we’re so proud of what we’ve done, that the anticipation of season 4 coming out, we’ve been so apprehensive, because we’re so proud and pleased with what we’ve achieved, we’ve been really apprehensive as to how he was going to be received.
‘So it’s been lovely and it’s been so overwhelming the feedback we’ve got over the last couple of weeks, that we’re really happy.’
Looking forward to volume two, the makeup effects ace stressed that there’s also ‘a lot of anticipation’ for the two final episodes of the season, so ‘it’ll be really fun and interesting’ to see how their hard work is received once more.
‘There’s gonna be surprises and there’s gonna be a lot of fun stuff to see,’ he added.
From what Barrie said, we’re going to predict that we might see more of how Jamie’s character transformed into Vecna in volume two, filling in the gaps between his descent into the Upside Down and the present-day events.
Whether or not Vecna will continue to be the big bad in season five – which will be the final outing for Stranger Things – remains to be seen.
However, given how incredible a character Vecna is on top of Jamie’s masterful performance, and the connection the villain may have had to the events of the series from the very beginning, we’re going to hasten a bet that we won’t be saying goodbye to him any time soon.
Stranger Things season 4 volume 2 to drop on Friday July 1 on Netflix.
