Stranger Things has taken over the pop-culture zeitgeist thanks to the release of its highly anticipated final episode. As with any popular TV show, there are mixed reactions to the Stranger Things finale – some loved it, some hated it, and some had nitpicks that landed them somewhere in between. However, there is one general point of consensus within the fandom: the cast of Stranger Things had viewers emotional with their final meta scenes together, speaking as both their characters and their real selves in the same moment.
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But not every character in Stranger Things got to have a moment onscreen to speak to their experience on the show, or how they felt about it coming to an end. There was one major star, in particular, that fans wanted to hear from: not only have they now made their feelings known, but they nailed the sentiment perfectly and succinctly.
Vecna Actor Jamie Campbell Bower Has The Perfect Goodbye to Stranger Things
“It’s been a pleasure to serve x” Jamie Campbell Bower stated in a New Year’s Day Twitter post.
The actor didn’t need to say more than that, as his tweet meteorically rose to viral status, creating over 5.6 million impressions and garnering over 330,000 likes in under 24 hours. Fans were quick to respond and shower Bower with praise: “the way he can portray such intense emotions with just his eyes,” one fan said in a post. “Now THAT is good acting”. Another fan posted “Peak performance” while including a collage of photos chronicling Henry’s arc in Stranger Things.
Stranger Things Season 5 Let Jamie Campbell Bower Fully Shine
Jamie Campbell Bower has been a talented performer that fans have seen onscreen since the 2000s, but Stranger Things is definitely his big breakout moment. He actually got his first big break doing throwback horror, thanks to a role in Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in 2007. He entered the 2010s with a recurring role as “Caius” in the Twilight Saga films, a pivotal cameo role in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series, and a stalled attempt to adapt the Mortal Instruments books into a blockbuster action/fantasy film franchise, and the starring role in Starz’s Camelot TV series. While Campbell was a standout in all of those roles, none of them catapulted him to the next level of stardom. It would be a slow-burn run into the 2020s, where the role of Vecna in Stranger Things finally gave the actor the role and opportunity he’d worked for.
Fans want to make sure Bower understands that his performance moments without all the Vecna makeup and prosthetics were just as (if not more) powerful and frightening: “I feel like he was a lot more menacing like this than under all the prosthetics, one fan wrote in a post. “I liked how emotive and freaky his eyes were.”
Stranger Things‘ main series may be over, and Vecna is (SPOILERS!) seemingly dead now, but that doesn’t mean Jamie Campbell Bower’s time in the franchise is over.
Could Vecna’s Story Continue in Stranger Things Spinoffs?
Stranger Things 5 tapped into lore about Henry Creel’s backstory – a bit of lore that Campbell helped establish and explore via the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. That stage show opened the door for Henry to be more than a villain, revealing him to be more complicated, with a big dynamic character arc. There are a few more spots where the lore about Henry Creel’s time as a man, or as Vecna, could be filled out by an additional miniseries, stage show, audio podcast, etc.
If not that, Jamie Campbell Bower has plenty of career propulsion behind him, after Stranger Things. He’ll have a starring role (that has yet to be revealed) in the upcoming Season 3 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; he’ll also be starring in the 2026 horror film True Haunting, alongside Erin Moriarty (The Boys), Anne Mitchell (Widows), about a couple who turn to a televised exorcism team to help cleanse their home of the spirits of an evil family.
Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.
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Image Courtesy of Netflix
