Stranger Things Theory Reveals Only 2 Characters Can Defeat Vecna (& It Was Set Up 3 Years Ago)

November 19, 2025, 5:30pm

A new Stranger Things theory reveals that only two characters can defeat Vecna, an epic ending set up three years ago. Created by the Duffer brothers, there’s a sense in which Stranger Things has come to define the last decade of streaming television. It’s easily the most celebrated Netflix Original, and the upcoming season 5 really does feel like a rare TV event. It’s not quite the end for the franchise – a Stranger Things animated spinoff is in the works – but it’s certainly the end of an era.

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The Hawkins kids are going up against their most terrifying threat yet. Vecna has been retconned as Stranger Things‘ true villain all along, bonded to the Upside Down and controlling it through his powers. The end of Stranger Things season 4 saw him open the gates to the Upside Down, preparing the way for a full invasion of Hawkins. But is it possible the show has already secretly told us the end of the story?

Was Stranger Things’ D&D Game Secretly Foreshadowing?

We first heard the name “Vecna” in Stranger Things season 4, episode 1. True to form, he wasn’t introduced as a character at all, but through the epic Dungeons & Dragons game hosted by Eddie Munson. Looking back, it’s immediately clear that the Vecna scene serves as deliberate foreshadowing, because Eddie tells a story in which Vecna was believed dead but has now returned. It neatly foreshadows the flashbacks that revealed Eleven supposedly killed the “real” Vecna, instead banishing him to the Upside Down.

But there’s a lot more to that D&D game than just the tale of a returning villain. Eddie unveils Vecna as the big bad in a campaign called “The Cult of Vecna,” with Vecna served by loyal cultists. This may well be more foreshadowing, indicating that Vecna will wind up controlling a cult; we know he can use the Mind Flayer to possess others, and the way is now clear for the Mind Flayer to reach into Hawkins. An updated Mind Flayer made its debut in the Stranger Things: The First Shadow Broadway show, and it would be foolish to not bring it into the show.

Eddie’s D&D campaign ends on a suitably dramatic note, interspersed with Lucas’ basketball game. In this scene, only two of the players are left to oppose Vecna. They must choose whether to flee or stand their ground, taking a desperate last shot, fighting to the death. Stranger Things season 4 focused a little too much on that D&D campaign, literally making it part of the first episode’s cliffhanger ending, and that would become so much more appropriate and meaningful if it turned out to foreshadow the entire show’s ending. Will Stranger Things end with only two heroes left to work against Vecna?

Who Could Stranger Things’ Two Last Heroes Be?

If this theory is right, then only two of the core Stranger Things kids will fight in the final battle against Vecna. But which two? It’s reasonable to assume that the first is Eleven herself, the show’s main character, the one being Vecna fears. Season 4 went to such great lengths to get Eleven’s powers back, the trailers have already teased something of a power-up, and it would be unsatisfying for her to not play a role in the final fight. So Eleven is surely one of the two.

The most reasonable guess for the second, though, is Will himself. As far as the Hawkins kids are concerned, Will’s disappearance was the “trigger” for their entire story; they wouldn’t even have found Eleven if they hadn’t been hunting for Will in the Upside Down. Stranger Things season 5’s opening scenes hint at a renewed focus on Will, retconning Vecna into his season 1 disappearance, and the trailers have teased that Vecna is once again concerned with Will.

A major theory suggests Will is the “Sorcerer” mentioned in the title of season 5, episode 4, meaning he’ll get powers of his own – perhaps due to his past ties to the Upside Down. If this is the case, it would be fantastic to see Will turn from victim to victor, standing alongside Eleven in the final battle against Vecna. The tantalizing question, of course, is just what happens to all the others if Eleven and Will are the last ones standing. We won’t have to wait long to find out.

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