How 'Stranger Things' crafted the many faces of Vecna

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The best horror villains are not only terrifying but complicated, their destructive persona hiding a far more vulnerable being underneath.That sense of complexity fuels Vecna, the antagonist of “Stranger Things,” whose climactic final season sees the character, played by Jamie Campbell Bower, take on a multitude of faces — some human and some grotesque.“He wasn’t just playing three characters, but three different layers of the same character, each with unique looks, vocal ranges, physicalities and emotions,” says Matt Duffer, one of the show’s creators.

“He [was] able to slip from one to the other like some kind of shape-shifter.It seems so effortless, but we know it’s not.

He spends an inordinate amount of time developing his characters in private — fleshing out their backstories, finding a way into their minds and skin.”Bower was cast in the role ahead of Season 4, where the character was introduced as a kind hospital orderly named Peter Ballard.By the end of the season, he was revealed to be Henry Creel, or One, who was transformed by the power of the Upside Down into a humanoid monster.

By Season 5, he’s evolved into a more ferocious iteration of himself, though we also encounter him disguised as the dapper Mr.Whatsit, grappling with traumatic memories as Henry and even briefly returning as the orderly.“I started with Vecna by physically feeling this character, finding the voice, using the references and attaching all of that into the emotion and the drive behind him,” Bower says.

“Then I started with Henry thinking about his childhood, his primary experiences, his feelings as a kid.I worked my way forwards with Henry and backwards with Vecna until they met.”“Mr.

Whatsit was the most challenging for Jamie to find,” Matt Duffer says.“We remember he cracked it by thinking deeply about Henry’s childhood — and how lonely it must have ...