Jamie Campbell Bower Says Vecna’s End in STRANGER THINGS is “The Ending the Show Deserves”

As the curtain closes on Stranger Things, one of the show’s most terrifying villains meets a definitive end. Jamie Campbell Bower, who brought Vecna to life, has made peace with his character’s fate and believes the finale lands exactly where it should.

Appearing on The Tonight Show, Bower shared his thoughts on how the long-running Netflix series wraps things up. “It's the ending the show deserves,” he said.

“I've been a fan of the show since the start, so even just joining the show was a huge achievement, and I felt very honored and blessed to be a part of it. Even as the actor who plays Vecna, it feels right.

“This show is so much about friendship and love and hope and joy and of course the person who is not that has to go. All he really needs is a hug, though.”

Vecna’s downfall comes in Episode 8, the series finale, when Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers finally puts an end to the nightmare with a well-placed axe swing. For Bower, the moment carried extra weight because he didn’t even know Vecna was doomed until the final table read.

That reveal came under unusual circumstances. “It was a really strange experience, because I got COVID for that table read and so everyone's in the studio in Atlanta and I'm stuck behind a computer screen in my little apartment in Atlanta. Isolated, alone, lonely… like Vecna,” he joked.

Ryder later explained that the pivotal scene itself was handled with care and restraint. There was no room to overthink it. “You can't rehearse a scene like that. You just have to sort of save it for the take. I think I only did it twice,” she revealed.

With Vecna gone and Hawkins finally able to breathe, Bower’s comments underline why the ending resonates. Letting the embodiment of that darkness fall feels earned, final, and true to what the show has always been.