Stranger Things creators had to break own rule for Upside Down reveal

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2

The creators of Stranger Things had to stray from one of their own rules for a major reveal in Volume 2.

With Will (Noah Schnapp) coming out as gay to his friends and family and Jancy officially breaking up, there were a number of turning points for the characters in the latest drop of episodes.

But the biggest of all has to be the fact that they (and all of us fans) finally have an understanding of what the Upside Down actually is. With Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) discovering Dr Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) journals, he was able to explain the whole thing to the Stranger Things gang.

And therefore, we got a bit more of a look at it – thanks to the Duffer Brothers switching things up anyway.

The creators decided now was finally the time to explain what the Upside Down is, having been ‘peeling back the layers over the seasons’.

And so now we know, through the voice of Dustin, that it’s a ‘wormhole’ that serves as a ‘bridge between two points in time and space’.

Basically, the Upside Down sits between Hawkins and an alternate dimension that he coins ‘the Abyss’, and it’s here where Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) banished 001 (Jamie Campbell Bower) to way back when in the rainbow room.

It’s also said to be the real home of the likes of the Mind Flayer and the Demogorgons, as well as Vecna and his Pain Tree where Holly and the other kids have been trapped.

And as Dustin explains all this, we get our first glimpse of just what the Upside Down looks like as the cameras ‘zoom out’.

But this is quite a different tactic from Matt and Ross Duffer as they explain that they usually try to ‘stay within the characters’ perspectives’ rather than bringing us out like this.

The creators say they generally stay in the characters' perspective. (Netflix)

Ross told Deadline: “That was an instance where we thought to illustrate this best to the audience, we had to leave the characters’ perspectives for a moment, just to show the enormity of this whole thing.”

The brothers decided an ‘hourglass shape’ was the easiest way to explain such a huge concept to us viewers.

“But to do that, we had to zoom out. I can’t remember how many miles away visual effects figured out that we were by the end in order to see the full shape, but we had to go way out,” Ross explained.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volumes 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix. The finale lands at 1am on 1 January 2026.