Stranger Things’ latest resident villain, Vecna, was inspired by two other TV dramas – and fans may be surprised by the very different shows that brought influences on the character’s terrifying design.
Barrie Gower, the prosthetic make-up designer behind Vecna’s look for the show, revealed the unusual influences behind the character’s appearance.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Gower said: “We got approached by an incredible producer called Iain Paterson and the brothers – the Duffer brothers. They approached us in 2019 – towards the tail end of 2019. They got in touch, and said that they had this character that they wanted to create for the new season, and they wanted their own iconic villain.”
He went on to explain that team behind Stranger Things took inspiration from two of HBO’s biggest hit shows which Gower himself worked on.
“And they were big fans of the Night King, a character we created for Game of Thrones. And also, I had worked, at the time, on HBO’s Chernobyl – on all the radiation-burn victims.
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“And I think they were looking for something that had a similar almost-look and feel and texture to some of those makeups – but to have this iconic presence, not unlike the Night King.”
Vecna, a sentient creature that is aligned with the Upside Down, began life as a human named Henry Creel. But the young Henry later discovered he had psychokinetic abilities and could alter the perception of others. This led to unbearably evil deeds, and Vecna’s presence in season 4 of Stranger Things marked the arrival of a villain unlike anything the show had seen before.
Rather than trying to replicate Gower’s effective creations on previous shows, naturally it made sense to approach the man himself when it came to creating Vecna – and that’s exactly how his involvement in Stranger Things came about.
“So I think in their early discussions when they were talking about the brief and saying, ‘We want someone who’s very practical, and is going to have a presence on set, and is going to be prosthetic makeup, and is something along the lines of a character like the Night King’.
“I think they were like, ‘Well, why don’t we approach the guys who made the Night King?’ So I think that’s how we got a shoo-in there.”
Vecna is a truly terrifying presence, so we’d certainly say that the right choice was made – though in this case, it seems that not even Dragonglass or Valyrian steel will help in the fight against him…
Additional reporting by Huw Fullerton
Read more:
- Who is Vecna in Stranger Things season 4?
- Stranger Things season 4 part 1 ending explained: What happened to Eleven?
- What is the Stranger Things age rating? Fans say season 4 is ‘scariest’ yet
- Stranger Things clears up confusion over Vecna
Stranger Things 4 part 1 is available to stream on Netflix, with more coming on July 1st. Stranger Things seasons 1-3 are now available on Netflix.
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