(Credits: Netflix)

For Netflix, the curtain call of 2025 meant closing the doors on Stranger Things forever. As for us, it meant bidding adieu to the show that had been a part of our lives for nearly a decade. But for Jamie Campbell Bower? The series finale meant saying goodbye to not only one, but three different characters, which undoubtedly came with its fair share of emotional burden.

Bower joined the cast in season four as the big bad of Stranger Things, Vecna, whose gory appearance was loosely based on Pinhead from the Hellraiser horror films. But before becoming Vecna, he was Henry Creel, the first test subject at the infamous Hawkins laboratory, whom Eleven banished to the Abyss.

In Stranger Things season five, Bower also played Mr Whatsit, a 1950s-style gentleman, the imaginary friend to Holly Wheeler and the Hawkins children, who abducted them to the Creel house to achieve his monstrous end. Although Vecna ultimately had to leave in a body bag after getting bested by the Hawkins heroes, despite the character’s prolonged carnage, Bower’s performance almost makes you feel for the villain.

In a conversation with Tudum, Bower reflected on the end, saying, “As I’m coughing up this bile, yes, I’m coughing, but the feeling that I want to convey and the words that I’m trying to get out are just, ‘Please don’t.’ It was one of the more human moments of playing Vecna.” While he was the only one to play three iterations in the show, the hardest challenge for him was “having had a manifesto in episode seven in season four to ten going into a situation” where he had to lie.

Bower also weighed in on the most rewarding aspect of playing Vecna. “Through my interactions with people outside the show, what’s wildly rewarding is knowing people can understand him, that he’s not just some anarchic crazy lunatic. He has his truth and his story. If I meet people and they say, “Oh, I know how that feels,” I’m like, “Good, because me too.” The fact that it worked is really rewarding. The fact that people found Vecna scary is really rewarding.”

That said, Bower’s character arc was not without its difficulties this season. In fact, if he had to point out the most challenging scene that he played in Stranger Things season five, Bower knows exactly what that is. “There’s a three-camera locked-off shot where I’m shifting between Vecna, Henry, and Mr Whatsit, and I’d rehearsed maybe 30 seconds of movement to match,” he recounted.

“On the day, director Frank Darabont needed more, so I just cut loose and matched that over and over again. That was tough, physically really hard.” However, it turns out that wasn’t all.

During shooting season five, “another challenge was sometimes filming with photo doubles instead of the real kids, which makes it hard to bounce off people. Shooting out of order was tough, too. Sometimes it felt like driving in the dark without headlights, but I have no doubt something beautiful will come out of it,” he explained.

By the time the conversation came to a close, Bower was clearly at a loss for words. But he knew that the one thing he was going to miss the most about working on Stranger Things was the people. As for whether he had any final message for the fans, well, he did, and it came full of gratitude. “Just thank you for letting us into your lives.”