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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1.
When Vecna arrives at the end of Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 4, the vines coating his body are more coiled and defensively curled upwards towards his face. This makes him look more menacing and larger on top, but his waist actually looks slimmer, something fans have taken to X to point out. In an interview with Screen Rant, Bower addressed this transformation, attributing it to what happened to Vecna in Season 4’s “The Piggyback.”
“Well, as we saw at the end of Season 4, Vecna suffered a fall and obviously was sort of almost burned alive,” Bower explained. “My understanding of it is that the reason he looks the way he does now is a byproduct of partly of that process. And also, just having spent more time, not in the human world, as it were.”
Vecna’s appearance makes sense after what he’s been through, but it was also a creative choice to give the villain a larger presence in Stranger Things Season 5. Barrie Gower, who handles the prosthetics for the show, told the Los Angeles Times that they were going for “Vecna on steroids.” However, concept artist and VFX supervisor Michael Maher Jr. noted that they wanted to accomplish this without leaning into “the cliché, bigger and bulkier” approach. After “Sorcerer,” it’s safe to say they pulled it off.
Vecna’s New Look Highlights the Villain’s Mental State After Season 4
Vecna should loom large over Stranger Things Season 5, and his physicality should represent that — but from what Bower told Screen Rant, his look is also reflective of his mental state. “He’s become more resentful and hideous within that process and part of the world in which he was thrown into,” the actor explained.
