Iconic Villains That Inspired Vecna in 'Stranger Things' Season 4

The identity of the main villain of 'Stranger Things ' season 4 was kept secret for a very long time – even from the actor who played it, Jamie Campbell Bower. But the Duffer brothers had to shed the light on what inspired them when they created the fourth chapter's main villain, and Bower is finally able to share this information with fans.

In an interview with IGN the actor revealed that Vecna was inspired by two "sides" that the Duffer brothers explored: one was from 1996 thriller 'Primal Fear', and the other was from 'Hellraiser'.

The actor could not help but come up with his own mind map of inspiring villains, starting from Dracula and going as far as Voldemort from the Harry Potter saga.

"Christopher Lee was on there as Dracula," Bower recalled. "I had Pinhead, obviously, on there. I had Freddy Krueger on there. I had the more recent version of Dracula. I had some characters from, god, some of the wild '80s vampire movies. Voldemort was on there as well. And a lot of fire."

This explosive cocktail was sprinkled with Bower's lack of actual knowledge about his character, so he had to piece Vecna together on his own.

"I knew very, very little, but somehow managed to piece enough together to be able to formulate the reality of who this person was," he said. "So call it fate, luck, intelligence, stupidity – god knows how it happened, but it happened."

Vecna is the twisted monster that Henry Creel, or laboratory subject 001, has become after Eleven refused to destroy the world with him and banished him into an alternate dimension. According to Bower, 001 is driven by hate and strive for vengeance – and we'll see how that works out for the Hawkins gang when Volume 2 premieres on July 1.