Stranger Things fans have theory about what Vecna is afraid of as creators speak out

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things 5 Volume 1.

Stranger Things fans have come up with a pretty strong theory about just what Vecna is ‘afraid’ of.

If you’ve made it through the first volume of the Netflix show’s fifth and final season by now, you’ll know we find out just where Max (Sadie Sink) actually is.

Yeah, sure, ok, her physical being is still in the coma, but her consciousness is trapped within Henry’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) memories.

And because she’s hanging about in there, she’s able to help out little Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) as they seem to be coming up with a plan to escape.

But Max’s presence isn’t the only thing we learn about in this first Stranger Things drop, but also that Vecna actually seems to be pretty scared of something.

Vecna was ‘terrified’

So, as she’s telling Holly, Max gives us a decent rundown of the things she’s seen and done while trapped in Henry’s memories and confirms just how close she was to waking up from her coma before her trusty Kate Bush tape stopped.

And she shows the young Wheeler the cave she’s been hiding out in as it’s apparently the only place Henry won’t go in.

Max had been running from Vecna when she came across the cave, and he stopped in his tracks. “I'll never forget the look on his face that day, " she said. "More than scared, he was terrified.”

This baffled plenty of viewers because there didn’t seem to be an obvious reason in the show as to just why he’d be afraid. I mean, there’s also the admission that it seems impossible that a monster like him would be afraid of anything at all – let’s be honest.

Max takes Holly to the cave. (Netflix)

Fans’ theory

Of course, you can always rely on the hardcore Stranger Things fan to have a theory on something like this and they’ve absolutely delivered.

Across social media, they’ve banded together to point out that there is a reference to this mysterious cave in the West End play, The First Shadow, which is a prequel to the series.

Apparently, in the stage show, it’s shown that young Henry enters a cave in Nevada on his eighth birthday and is eventually found with no memory of what happened.

But it’s then inferred that here he first encountered something connected to the Upside Down.

One fan summed up on Reddit: “That cave was where he first vanished into Dimension X as a kid and where he first encountered the Mind Flayer and gained his abilities/was infected by it. It's where his life changed forever and it was an experience that obviously seriously messed him up. Clearly, he's afraid to go back there, both because of the trauma it would cause and because he doesn't want to face the innocent child he was once, the possibility of what he could have been had he not stumbled into that cave in the first place.”

"He was terrified." (Netflix)

What have the Duffer Brothers said?

Well, with plenty of fans agreeing online, there’s no denying that the theory of the cave and the play is pretty strong.

And it seems the Duffer Brothers have confirmed it as they told Variety the cave in the Netflix show and on stage is the same.

“When we were working on the play with Kate Trefry, we had Henry’s backstory worked out,” Matt Duffer explained. “There was always a balance that we had to find in terms of how much we were going to put in the play. [The director] Stephen [Daldry] and [the producer] Sonia [Friedman] were always pushing for more and we were pushing back and saying, ‘Well, we have to wait to reveal that in the show'. You’ll see, especially as you reach the final episode, there’s more overlap with the play.”

The creator also explained that fans ‘absolutely do not’ have to have watched The First Shadow to understand. “They’re Easter eggs more than anything,” he added.

Well, at least we can say it seems Vecna/Henry is afraid of the cave because of his origin and/or the Mind Flayer, but I guess we’ll have to wait to find out the finer details.

Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix, with Volume 2 being released on Boxing Day (26th December) and the finale on New Year's Eve.