Warning: This article contains spoilers for the new season of Stranger Things.
The actor who plays Vecna in Stranger Things has explained how he reckons the monster chose his latest target.
With the actor who plays her replaced after several years, it’s little Holly Wheeler who falls prey to the villain and is dragged into the Upside Down. And Jamie Campbell Bower thinks there’s a very specific reason as to why Vecna targets her in Netflix's latest season of Stranger Things.
Although Nell Fisher’s character does put up quite the fight when the Demogorgon breaks into her home, with her mum Karen (Cara Buono) iconically beating it with her wine bottle, she is ultimately defeated. That incredible scene, of course, comes after the youngster has spent a while chatting to her ‘imaginary friend’ Mr Whatsit – later of course revealed to be Henry Creel (/Vecna).
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Vecna’s prey
Right at the beginning of episode one, we first get an introduction to the youngest Wheeler kid waving to a mysterious figure before later chatting to the same invisible ‘friend’ at school.
Mr. Whatsit (although fans have now renamed him ‘Mr Whatwaist’ thanks to Vecna’s redesign) is modelled off Mrs Whatsit from A Wrinkle in Time, which Holly and some of her classmates appear to have been reading.
The show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, said this was one of their ‘favourite books’ when they were kids, so they used it as Holly’s way to ‘help understand and comprehend all these weird goings on’.
Things obviously soon get a lot creepier than the youngster having an imaginary friend though, as she’s dragged into the Upside Down by a Demogorgon in episode two and finds herself in Vecna’s mindscape with Max (Sadie Sink). But for a while, Holly really believes Henry is protecting her from ‘the monsters’.
Why does Vecna target Holly?
To some fans, Vecna picking out Holly seemed a bit random, but for others, it made a whole lot of sense.
If you go back throughout the seasons of Stranger Things, it seems as though it’s long been hinted that the young Wheeler would become a major part of the plot.
And Bower came up with his own reasoning for the choosing of her as Vecna’s prey.
“I’d considered my father’s relationship to alcohol, and interestingly enough, Karen Wheeler’s relationship to alcohol as well,” he told Deadline.
“Holly is a very smart and bright child.”
He said he’d been asked just why Holly was the ‘first’ school kid Vecna chose, before going after a load of others at the end of Volume One.
“And I think that where I got to with that was, I was like, well, yes, there’s a connection between the fact that we’re both bright,” Bower explained.
“I think Henry’s always seen himself as quite bright. But also, that presents a challenge as well. If I can win you over, then the rest of them will come easy.”
The recasting of Holly
Throughout the previous seasons of Stranger Things (from 2016 to 2022), the role of Holly was shared by identical twin sisters, Anniston and Tinsley Price.
But for season five, British-New Zealand actor Fisher stepped into the role.
Having just turned 14, she’s already got impressive credits under her belt, such as Evil Dead Rise and Bookworm.
And the Duffer Brothers explained to SFX that they wanted to ‘recapture’ some of the feeling of season one’.
“And some of that you can't recapture unless you have kids, because our kids are not kids any more,” Matt Duffer said. “They're not close to being kids any more. So it was really fun to add Holly and her classmates into the show, because it allowed us to recapture some of that feeling."
Matt told Variety of Fisher: “I remember seeing the Evil Dead Rise trailer and seeing her. I had not seen the movie. I just saw her in the trailer and I was like, ‘That’s Holly.’
“But then I didn’t remember that. [Our casting director] Carmen [Cuba] found her, brought her to us, and I was like, ‘I knew this like six months ago.’ That would’ve saved us a lot of time.”
Stranger Things 5, Volume One, is now streaming on Netflix
Topics: Stranger Things, Netflix, TV and Film
Jess Battison