Stranger Things Season 5's first volume confirmed a third character with special psychic powers. The fifth season of the highly anticipated Netflix series centers on a group of teens and their families in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, as they confront supernatural forces from another dimension. Throughout Stranger Things, two major characters have exhibited similar telekinetic powers: Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven and Jamie Campbell Bower's Henry, also known as Vecna.
Eleven was born with psychic abilities due to her mother's participation in the MKUltra project during her pregnancy, which led to Eleven being abducted and trained by Doctor Brenner at Hawkins Lab. While there, Eleven met a supervisor named Henry, who was another psychic test subject in disguise. After the two battled in one of Stranger Things' essential episodes, Eleven sent Henry to the Upside Down, where he transformed into the ultra-powerful Vecna.
Now, another super-powered character has emerged in Stranger Things, alongside Eleven and Vecna.
Warning: The rest of this article contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5.
Stranger Things 5's fourth episode ended with the surprise reveal that Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) has psychic abilities. In the battle at the MAC-Z in Hawkins, Vecna emerges from the Upside Down to enact his plan of stealing children from Hawkins.
It was established earlier in Season 5 that Vecna implanted Will into the Upside Down's hive mind when he initially kidnapped him in Season 1, and ever since then, Will has had a lingering connection to Vecna and his monsters. In Season 5, that intensified as Will began to learn to use this connection to spy on Vecna and see through the eyes of the Demogorgons he was controlling.
Then, in Episode 4's climax, Will is able to tap into the same psychic abilities as Vecna, using them to control the Demogorgons in the MAC-Z and snap their necks. This confirms Will as another psychic ability user in the Stranger Things world, but still, his powers don't follow the same rules as Vecna and Eleven's.
Stranger Things Creators Reveal Why Will's Powers Are Different
The reveal of Will's abilities came as a surprise to fans, and Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer have revealed exactly how they work within the show's world. Speaking to Variety, the Duffers confirmed that Will's powers are "different" from Eleven's, as he is only able to use them by "channel[ing] Vecna's powers:"
Ross Duffer: "It’s different in that he’s able to channel Vecna’s powers. But they’re all related. Vecna and Eleven, their powers are similar. The powers aren’t within him. He’s able to channel these powers from Vecna and use it, sort of puppeteering."
Matt Duffer expanded on this, saying that Will can "manipulate the monster", but that his powers are limited to "anything within the hive," therefore he's not capable of doing things like opening gates or doors to the Upside Down because "the door is not part of the hive mind:"
Matt Duffer: "He taps into the hive mind, and then he can manipulate anything within the hive. You’ll see how far he can take it as you continue to watch. But that’s how he’s able to manipulate the monster. So he can’t open a door, because the door is not part of the hive mind."
The brothers further confirmed that Will's powers come solely from his past with the hive mind. It was revealed in the Season 5 opener that Vecna implanted Will into the hive when he took him as a boy in Season 1, and it was this moment that provided Will with the access he needed to gain powers later in Season 5.
Matt Duffer: "He got it because he got hooked into the hive mind."
The Duffers added that while this hidden Season 1 moment was the instigator for Will's powers, he wasn't able to access them until the Season 5 moment. Will dabbled with this ability in Season 2 of Stranger Things, when he exhibited an ability to see through the eyes of the Mind Flayer, but "he didn't realize at the time he was able to tap into it in a way and use it against Vecna:"
Matt Duffer: "He had a dark version of it in Season 2 — he was connected to Vecna. He could see what he saw, but he didn’t realize that at the time he was able to tap into it in a way and use it against Vecna. That’s something he doesn’t learn till this season. It took us a while to build there, but it was something we always intended to do. The details of it were a little rough until we started working on it."
How Will, Vecna, and Eleven Connect
These quotes establish some key boundaries of Will's powers and also separate him from the likes of Eleven and Vecna. Both Eleven and Vecna were born with their psychic powers at birth and went on to train and harness these abilities through a combination of experiments during their mothers' pregnancies and testing from Doctor Brenner.
Meanwhile, Will's powers are sourced directly from Vecna, essentially hijacking them for his own use. After being attached to the hive mind, Will was only able to tap into these powers years later, after he overcame his fear of Vecna and the Upside Down. This is also why he appears different to Eleven while using these abilities.
In Stranger Things 5, when Will taps into Vecna's abilities, his eyes become milky white, echoing the appearance of Vecna when he taps into someone's subconscious or accesses the hive mind. This is distinctly different from Eleven, who has no change in eye color, although she will typically bleed from her nose after using her powers. That being said, Will also bleeds from his nose after using Vecna's powers, suggesting this is a common side effect of psychic abilities.
Another difference is that Eleven and Vecna's powers do make them capable of opening and closing doors to the Upside Down, but because Will's abilities are limited to other beings in the hive mind, he can't do the same.
This also suggests that Will won't be able to use his psychic powers on everyday objects, unlike Eleven, who can move cars and helicopters with her mind. In Will's case, his abilities are limited to beings who are also linked to Vecna, like the Demagorgons, but he likely wouldn't be able to use these abilities on those outside the Upside Down hive. It can also be presumed that if someone were to sever Will's connection to the hive, he would no longer have these powers.
