Spoilers follow for Stranger Things Season 5, Vol. 2.
In a season 5 episode Stranger Things“Chapter Six: Escape from Camazotz,” Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) lays out to the Hawkins gang (and viewers) exactly what's going on with the Upside Down. According to Dr. Brenner's diary, all the chaos comes down to a wormhole that served as a bridge between Hawkins and Vecna's machinations.
If you're an observant viewer, there are many implications leading up to this discovery, including earlier in season five when Mr. Clark (Randy Havens) was teaching a science class about wormholes. In an interview with IGN, series creators Matt and Ross Duffer said they had been pursuing this idea since the first season, when Netflix demanded that they plot the series finale.
The Duffers have known how Stranger Things ends for years.
The brothers previously stated that they know what the final scene of the show will be. “six or seven years.” And it looks like many other elements of the show's final season have been in the works for even longer.
“Netflix came to us very early in the writing of the first season and just asked us to explain some of the mythology,” Ross said. “We said, 'Well, we don't want to tell the audience everything in the first season.' It's really from a character perspective and we needed a mystery. And they said, “That's great, but for usyou write it down.”
Ross told IGN that they sat in their writers' room and that's where they developed the basis for the wormhole: “It wasn't called The Abyss back then, but the idea was that there was another dimension where all the evil came from, our demogorgons and our monsters. It's been in the works for a while, so it's nice to finally reveal it.”
When asked if the complexity of the various high-concept ideas about the Upside Down, the Abyss, and the science of it all ever wracked their brains, Matt admitted, “It does hurt the brain sometimes. I'm not going to lie.”
But he also pointed to their talented writers, especially Paul Dichter, who has worked on the series since the first season. Matt said Dichter has the “superpower” of being a science fiction expert.
“He's read every serious science fiction book in the world. Ross and I haven't,” Matt chuckled. “He's very smart in these areas, so he's able to keep it all in his head. And so when we get confused or other writers get confused, Paul talks some sense into us.”
Another key collaborator from the beginning was executive producer and director Shawn Levy, who helped them complete the series. In fact, for the first time in the show's history, they filmed the episode “Chapter Seven: The Bridge” together.
Matt Duffer initially said that it was just a Duffer Brothers episode, but it became impossible for them to do it alone and finish writing the series finale, and they knew they couldn't screw it up.
“Sean wasn’t originally supposed to be available, but his schedule has cleared up a bit thanks to Deadpool. [& Wolverine]”, Matt said about what has changed. “It was a lot of fun collaborating with him. I mean, we've never worked together. He directed the scenes and we directed the scenes, but on average it was almost exactly 50/50. I'll be interested to see if people can figure out who directed what.”
Ross agreed: “Our styles are so similar when we're directing Stranger Things that hopefully it feels like one piece. But again, we're so lucky that he was able to come in and help us and buy us the writing time that we so desperately needed.”
Jamie Campbell Bower and Noah Schnapp on the ending of season five
We also spoke with Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna) and Noah Schnapp (Will Bayer) about the latest batch of episodes and the long-established connection between their characters, which is explored in the episode “Chapter Five: Shock-Jock.” There, Will first discovers that he can siphon powers from the demon, and then uses this knowledge to actually damage Vecna's leg at the end of the episode.
When asked how things were going with Vecna in the series finale, Campbell Bower responded that his character's “frustration is getting worse.”
The actor said he viewed what happened at the beginning of season five between Vecna and Will as a byproduct of Will being a means to an end. “But then, of course, you know how much it affects Vecna in this chapter, and how much it can affect Vecna in this chapter makes it even more of an annoyance for him,” he chuckled. “Did that put him in an awkward position? I don't think he'd like to think that way, but I certainly think it's, as you say, a knockdown and a little hit. But you know, old Vecchi will hobble on.”
As for his scene partner, actor Noah Schnapp, he said he only found out how their dynamic was resolved in the final script, when he read it with the rest of the cast.
“I wanted to see it so bad, and this one was different. They didn't send it to anyone,” Schnapp said of how the episode's script was broken down. “We actually all read it together at the table for the first time. And it was scary to turn the page. You just want to skip to the end and see if it's good? But gradually, as we read the table, the emotions got higher and higher, and by the end everyone was crying. If it was such an emotional read, I can't even imagine what it was like to watch that episode. It was funny that they did it that way, and that it was the first time we all experienced it together.”
