Stranger Things season 4: who is Vecna ​​and what is his real identity?

The first episodes of stranger things Season 4 has finally released – and there’s a new villain everyone’s talking about.

Netflix’s hit series — starring Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder and Finn Wolfhard — has returned with seven new episodes, released Friday (May 27).

The new season has presented viewers with a new antagonist that has the characters fear for the fate of Hawkins – and her life.

*Spoilers for stranger things Season four is coming… you’ve been warned!*

Dustin (played by Gaten Matarazzo) named the villain Vecna ​​after noticing similarities between his powers and those of a character in the game Dungeons and Dragons.

However, as the show progresses it becomes clear that Vecna ​​(the villain from Upside Down) bears little resemblance to his namesake.

Vecna ​​has the ability to sneak into his victims’ minds, putting them in a trance and trapping them in a nightmarish alternate reality where he has the power to kill them in real life.

Matarazzo previously told radio times the Nightmare on Elm Street was a “big inspiration” for the Duffer Brothers – the creators of the series – as they wrote the fourth season.

The comparison makes sense since Vecna’s powers are similar to those of Freddy Krueger, the antagonist in the 1984 horror film, who can attack his victims in their dreams.

It is therefore fitting that Robert Englund (who played Krueger in the horror franchise) should appear in the series as one of Vecna’s earliest victims, Victor Creel.

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David Harbor (reprising his role as Hopper on the series) previously narrated it diversity that “Vecna ​​is a psychological horror we don’t think we’ve actually seen”.

“We’ve never seen anything so calculated psychologically evil,” Harbor said, adding that Vecna ​​”is a truly great evil that we needed on the show.”

*Again BIG spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 part one below*

In a massive plot twist, Vecna ​​turns out to be Peter Ballard (played by Jamie Campbell).

Peter is One – or 001 – the original subject of Dr. Brenner’s (Matthew Modine) telekinetic experiments, which also involved Eleven.

However, Peter’s psychosis was so severe that the doctors had to suppress his powers with a chip.

After tricking Eleven into destroying the chip, a young Peter goes on a killing spree in the lab (flashbacks viewers see throughout the season), ending in a showdown with Eleven banishing Peter to the Upside Down Vecna ​​becomes where he will eventually be.