- - Jamie Campbell Bower explains how Mr. Rogers inspired Vecna in “Stranger Things 5”

Nick RomanoDecember 26, 2025 at 2:00 AM

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Courtesy of Netflix (3)

Jamie Campbell Bower as Mr. Whatsit, Henry Creel, and Vecna in 'Stranger Things 5'

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Stranger Things season 5, volume 2.

There's one particular scene in Stranger Things season 5's second volume in which Jamie Campbell Bower shifts through all of Vecna's different forms in a matter of seconds.

It comes in "Shock Jock," the fifth episode, when Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) attempt to flee the "mindscape" prison in which the big bad has trapped their consciouses. They believe an exit hatch could be hidden somewhere in his memories, so they go back to the moment Vecna first encountered Holly, even though she wasn't aware of his presence at the time.

Vecna finds them, and when his more docile Mr. Whatsit disguise no longer affects Holly, his frustration causes him to phase-shift between that form and his original Henry Creel self. Then, when he begins walking down the stairs, his blood-splattered white lab uniform transforms again to reveal his current, more monstrous visage.

In the past, Bower pulled more from Dracula and other gothic vampire imagery when creating his version of the character, but he had more specific references for season 5, including one very unexpected influence: Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler and Jamie Campbell Bower as Mr. Whatsit in 'Stranger Things 5'

"I used The Shining, so the Kubrick-ian stare was obviously something I was very eager in utilizing, even in season 4," the actor tells Entertainment Weekly. "For season 4, I used Funny Games — the American remake, particularly the way that Brady [Corbet] and Michael [Pitt] hold themselves. You can see that I've...borrowed. Credit where credit's due."

For season 5, Bower lists Alone, the 2020 horror film about a woman trying to escape a bloodthirsty psychopath in the wilderness, as well as actor Van Johnson in 1957's The Pied Piper of Hamelin as inspirations.

Then there was the iconic children's show host. "Mr. Rogers was a really interesting reference because that actually bled into music as well," Bower says. "I used Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood, but that score is really eerie as well, with some real moments of spook."

Bower recalls going through his phone and finding videos of himself on set preparing for season 5's "Shock Jock" scene as he walks down the staircase. "There are videos of me … prior to getting there, practicing, trying things out, seeing what would work," he says. "I did it in two characters, but wanted to make sure that the body was in the same place and that the movement was correct so that when it's spliced together, it's not too wild."

Courtesy of Netflix

Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in 'Stranger Things 5'

He also saw Vecna as an entirely separate form — the manifestation of resentment, or this "vine around love," as Bower describes it. But within all the forms was the idea of memory retention.

"I'd ask myself questions like, 'Of all the things that could exist, why recreate the house?'" he says, referring to the Creel family home where a young Henry killed his mother and sister and drove his father to madness. "What does that mean to him? And what does home mean? And what was that experience like for him as a child, growing up where home could have been safe but wasn't? And perhaps this is an opportunity for him to recreate that safety."

Bower continues, "If he sleeps, where does he sleep? Does he sleep in his old room? Does he sleep in the attic? Does he, in a really icky way, sleep in his parents' room? Then with the Henry-ness of it, I think it's going back to that innocence, to that child and, I suppose, you could look at them as a development of a loss of innocence."

Volume 2 also features a scene that harkens back to the events of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the prequel stage play that chronicles Henry's arrival to Hawkins and the events that transpired there then.

Jamie Campbell Bower as Mr. Whatsit and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler in 'Stranger Things 5'

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In the scene, Max and Holly uncover the memory Henry refuses to revisit. In a cave near the Nevada home where his family lived, the young boy stumbled upon a scientist who was hiding essential equipment from the Nevada Experiment, a secret government operation involving the Abyss. He killed the scientist in self-defense and went to open his briefcase. We don't actually see what's in it, and the scene isn't in the stage play, but we know its contents led to Henry's first encounter with the other dimension and gave him his abilities.

Bower found the play to be incredibly helpful in his understanding of Vecna/Henry/One in Stranger Things 5. "There were also experiences that I envisaged Henry having whilst I was getting prepared to play the character in season 4, and I felt like when I watched the play, a lot of those things were qualified almost," he says.

Speaking of Henry's homelife after he gains his abilities, he adds, "There's a brief moment where Virginia hits Henry across the face [in the play], and I think there was always this idea of isolation and loneliness with the character."

The Stranger Things series finale premieres in select theaters and on Netflix beginning Dec. 25 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

on Entertainment Weekly

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