With just under a week to go until Stranger Things releases its penultimate set of episodes, fans think they’ve finally figured out one of the biggest questions throughout the entire show: Why was Will taken?
Stranger Things season five will release volume two next week on Christmas Day, and with it, the creators Matt and Ross Duffer have promised that many of the show's biggest questions will be answered.
Season one of the hit Netflix show is entirely centred around the mystery of where they took Will Byers, but as the show goes on, the question of why they took him has become even bigger.
This was solidified by the ending to season five, volume one of Stranger Things, where it was revealed that Will’s connection to the Mind Flayer hive mind from the show gave him many of the same powers of Vecna.
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Will’s connection to Vecna, however, is how many believe his role and why he was taken will finally be revealed in volume two of the show’s final season.
Matt and Ross Duffer appeared on The Jimmy Fallon Show, where, in typical 2025 fashion, the showrunners were asked to arrange Stranger Things Funko pops in a way that would hint at what was set to happen in the rest of the show.
The Duffer brothers proceeded to rearrange the characters, with most fans picking up on Steve being placed on the edge of the table after the first trailer for volume two, which had viewers worried that he was a goner.
In the process, however, at one point, they stacked three characters on top of each other, with Vecna on top, his pre-Upside-Down name, Henry, on the bottom, with Will Byers in the middle between them both.
The clip was shared to Reddit with one comment saying: “What do you mean Will is standing in between Henry and Vecna................WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!”
Another fan, however, pointed out that Will could be ‘The Bridge’ between the two, with one episode in Volume Two specifically being called this.
This spawned a Stranger Things subreddit fan theory, which superfans of the show seemed quite convinced by.
They said: “We’ve always known that Vecna didn’t choose Will by accident. In canon, the explanation is vague. We know Henry and Will is alike but the ‘why’ has never been fully explained. In my theory, the reason is deeply psychological, rooted in trauma, and connected across generations.”
The theory suggests that Lonnie Byers (Will and Jonathan’s Dad) and Henry had an abusive dynamic when they were both at school at the same time, something confirmed in Season Five Volume One through Max’s flashbacks.
The poster said: “Will Byers grows up sensitive, creative, and emotionally open, traits that echo young Henry,” suggesting that Lonnie’s mistreatment of him mirrored that of Henry before he became ‘Vecna’.
They summed it up by saying: “The psychological chain can be summarized as follows: Lonnie abuses Henry → Henry internalizes trauma → Henry becomes Vecna → Lonnie raises Will → Will mirrors Henry → Vecna targets Will.”
Finally, they added: “Will is chosen not by chance, but because he embodies the living continuation of a cycle of control, fear, and emotional vulnerability that began decades earlier.
“The horror is not just supernatural it is deeply psychological, showing how trauma can ripple across generations. Lonnie fuelled Vecna.”
This theory not only explains why Will specifically was chosen, but also maybe why he may be ‘the bridge’ that brings Vecna back from the Upside Down at the end of the season.
Stranger Things season five volume two will be available to stream on Netflix from December 25.
Topics: Stranger Things, Netflix, TV and Film, TV, Reddit
Michael Slavin