Vecna in Stranger Things season 5 episode 4
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Cathal Gunning
Published 24 minutes ago
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 and Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
While Stranger Things season 5 brings the Hawkins gang closer to their inevitable face-off with Vecna, the show didn’t quite explain how the Broadway tie-in play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, relates to the series. The wait for Stranger Things season 5, volume 1 is finally over, and the show’s arrival has somehow managed to live up to the outsized hype.
Finally explaining Vecna’s Stranger Things plan, providing Will with a heroic moment after nine years of waiting, and even reintroducing Eleven’s long-forgotten “Sister” Kali, Stranger Things season 5, volume 1 is a triumph that pays off dozens of carefully planted clues from throughout the series. However, there’s one piece of canon that doesn’t tie in so neatly.
The play Stranger Things: The First Shadow debuted in the West End in December 2023 before beginning a Broadway run in April 2025. Stranger Things: The First Shadow is a prequel to the series, taking place in 1959 and chronicling the tragic adolescence of Henry Creel, the boy who would grow up to become Vecna.
The First Shadow Is A Prequel To Stranger Things
Henry Creel smiling in his Mr. Whatsit form in Stranger Things season 5
In the Stranger Things timeline, The First Shadow arrives fairly early. The show’s prologue takes place in 1943 and depicts Dr. Brenner’s father taking part in secret military experiments during World War II. Like father, like son, Dr. Brenner goes on to take over these experiments years later.
The play then jumps ahead to 1959, where the audience is introduced to a young Henry Creel. Although Vecna is the main villain of Stranger Things, Henry is a tragically agreeable character in Stranger Things: The First Shadow. He is tormented by visions of a shadowy alternate dimension, and a terrible force from it overtakes him on occasion.
This causes him to do terrible things like kill people’s pets, but it also, crucially, isn’t Henry’s fault. When Henry accidentally blinds the father of his teenage crush while at her house, Dr. Brenner is brought in to investigate. The scientist reveals that one of his scientists stole technology from his lab in Nevada, causing a terrible tragedy to befall Henry.
When Henry came across the scientist’s stolen technology in a Nevada cave, he accidentally transported himself and the scientist into Dimension X, where Henry was exposed to the Mind Flayer. While Vecna seems like an outright villain in season 5, The First Shadow proves he was once as innocent as most other Stranger Things characters before meeting this monster.
Every Stranger Things Character In The First Shadow
Joyce speaking into a microphone in Stranger Things
A huge swathe of the Stranger Things cast is first introduced as their young selves in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, although none of the show’s young heroes appear apart from Eleven. Henry Creel and his family are the play’s main characters, while Dr. Brenner is its primary antagonist.
A young Joyce Byers is seen setting up a production of Oklahoma in Hawkins High School, while a young Jim Hopper and Bob Newby join forces to work out who is killing local pets. Bob’s sister, Patty, is Henry’s love interest, who survives the play but is unintentionally injured by Henry during the climax.
The parents of the main characters of Stranger Things are also briefly introduced, and Eleven just about makes an appearance in the final scene. The play’s epilogue reveals that, years after Brenner brought Henry to Hawkins Lab, he introduced him to Eleven and accidentally set into motion the massacre seen at the beginning of season 4.
The First Shadow Introduces Dimension X & Vecna's True Origins
Vecna holding Will Byers face in Stranger Things season 5 part 1
One of the main changes that Stranger Things: The First Shadow makes to the show’s canon is the introduction of Dimension X, which proves that an alternate dimension existed before Vecna molded it into the Upside-Down. This, along with the Mind Flayer’s power over him, proves that Vecna isn’t the primary antagonist of the series as a whole.
How The First Shadow Explains The Cave In Stranger Things Season 5
In season 5, Max hides out in a cave that Vecna is afraid to enter. The cave is filled with strange technology and looks out on the Nevada desert, meaning it can’t be part of the Upside-Down's ersatz version of Hawkins. Stranger Things: The First Shadow reveals that this is Henry’s memory of the cave where he was playing when he was transported to Dimension X.
This explains why Vecna is afraid to enter the cave, as it is home to his earliest traumas. This gives Holly Wheeler and Max somewhere to hide from him while trapped inside his mind.
Is The First Shadow Canon? What The Play Means For The Rest Of Stranger Things
It is up to viewers to decide whether Stranger Things: The First Shadow is canon, but its existence fundamentally alters the story of season 5. Since the relationship between Brenner, Henry, and Eleven was revealed in season 4, it has seemed like Henry was a uniquely evil child, Brenner was a well-meaning but overzealous scientist, and Eleven was Vecna’s natural foil.
However, Stranger Things: The First Shadow reveals that Brenner is the true antagonist of the series as a whole, alongside the Lovecraftian entity, the Mind Flayer. It is his attempts to ruin Henry’s life that create Vecna, and therefore, the late doctor is the true villain of Stranger Things if the play is considered part of the show’s canon.
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Eleven looking into an opening of the Upside Down with pink light in Stranger Things season 1
Jim Hopper (David Harbour) grabbing Jonathan's (Charlie Heaton) shoulders in Stranger Things season 1©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Eleven with cables all over her head in Stranger Things season 4
Vecna looking towards Will in the trailer for Stranger Things season 5 (2025)
Max and Eleven in Stranger ThingsNetflix
Stranger Things season 2, episode 2 "Trick or Treat, Freak".MovieStillsDB
The Upside Down in Stranger Things season 5Courtesy of Netflix Close
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How does learning about Henry Creel's past in The First Shadow change your perception of Vecna as the main villain of Stranger Things?
Cathal
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24 minutes ago
Seeing Henry's tragic backstory in The First Shadow makes Vecna a more sympathetic character for some fans, as it shows he was an innocent victim corrupted by the Mind Flayer. This could lead viewers to blame Dr. Brenner and the experiments more than Vecna himself.
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