After watching the first part of Stranger Things season five, everyone is talking about how different Vecna looks, and this is why they changed his appearance.
The human-turned-evil-monster has a much slimmer waist than he did in season four, and the branches on his shoulders now point upwards rather than being flat.
In an interview with the LA Times, the prosthetics designer Barrie Gower explained that they wanted to make “Vecna on steroids” for the final season.
They changed the monster’s appearance to make Vecna look more powerful, “but not [in] the cliché, bigger and bulkier way”. Instead, they decided to make him skinner and more exposed.
The vines that overtook Vecna’s body now have a “Medusa-like” look near his head and shoulders, which is like armour, as well as a mutilated arm and hand and extendable sharp claws.
I wonder, why does Vecna look so different? The „branches“ on his shoulder? Slimmer waist? @Jamiebower spill
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(@LuisaLefaiy) November 29, 2025
They wanted to make Vecna “a character that is mostly powerful with his mind, that really resonates as a villain,” visual effects supervisor Michael Maher added, and the new look does exactly that.
Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna, also told Screen Rant Vecna’s new look reflects the injury he suffered at the end of season four.
“Well, as we saw at the end of season four, Vecna suffered a fall and obviously was sort of almost burned alive. My understanding of it is that the reason he looks the way he does now is a byproduct of partly of that process. And also, just having spent more time, not in the human world as it were,” he said.
“He’s become more resentful and hideous within that process and part of the world in which he was thrown into. I speak about this often, But adding extra layers and extra things onto the suit to make sure that when I was stepping onto set, that that sort of presence was felt.”
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Featured image credit: Netflix
