NEED TO KNOW
Jamie Campbell Bower can confirm: pursuing a mission to destroy humanity gets exhausting!
As the actor, 37, prepares to start a new chapter following the conclusion of Stranger Things, he spoke with PEOPLE at the Los Angeles premiere in November about saying goodbye. Although the fifth and final season is only his second on the beloved Netflix series, Bower admits it feels like the right time for it to come to an end.
“We all worked so hard on this season, so I think we’re all just excited and happy to finally be handing it over to the fans,” he explains. “Because for me, my work was done when I left set, so now it’s time to give it over, finally.”
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Thinking back to that last day of filming, Bower recalls a sense of relief come over him.
“It was like I had put down a bunch of bags that I’d been carrying around with me for what felt like four or five years,” he says. “Somebody took a picture of me, and I just looked like a man who’s just taken the first breath of his life.”
He adds that “it was sad. A lot of people have used the term bittersweet, and it really was bittersweet.”
Warning: some spoilers for the first four episodes of season 5
At the end of season 4 — which was the Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street star’s first — his villainous character, Vecna (a.k.a. Henry Creel, the first resident of the Upside Down), disappeared. However, Vol. 1 of season 5 revealed that he hasn’t gone anywhere and remains committed to his goal of ruling the world with his powers and destroying others once they escape.
The first four episodes, which debuted on Nov. 26, ended on a cliffhanger, with Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) uncovering Vecna’s secrets and attempting to save his friends when Vecna sends the demogorgons to attack them all. When Will discovers his newfound powers, he uses them to kill each creature with his mind.
“We are back, we are bigger, we are badder than ever,” Bower shares of the final season, teasing that there will also be “some more fire” than fans have seen in the past.
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At MegaCon Orlando in February, Bower expressed a similar sentiment about needing a break from playing such an intense role. While he said he wasn’t worried about being typecast as a villain, he would prefer to step back from the archetype.
“It’s funny. I was talking to my therapist the other day,” he told the crowd, insisting that he was “dead serious” about reflecting on the recent therapy session. “I’m not lying.”
“We were going through some stuff, and he was like, ‘We really need to make sure that you carve out time for you whenever you’re working next.’ ” he shared. “I turned around to him, and I was like, ‘Yeah, to be honest with you, man, I just don’t think I’ll be doing another bad guy for a minute.’ Like it f—s me up.”
Vol. 1 of Stranger Things season 5 is now streaming on Netflix. Vol. 2 drops Dec. 25 with three episodes, and the finale drops Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.
