- Netflix has released the opening scene of Stranger Things season 5 episode 1
- It answers a big question about Will Byers from the show’s debut season
- Some fans are unimpressed with one aspect of the footage, though
Netflix has released the first five minutes of Stranger Things season 5 – and, oh boy, do we need to talk about it.
With less than three weeks to go (at the time of writing) until Stranger Things‘ final season premieres, Netflix is in full promo mode for the show’s last hurrah. And, to further generate hype for the arrival of Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 on November 26, the streaming giant has dropped the opening scene online for us to pore over.
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It’s a pretty significant sequence, too. Instead of Stranger Things 5 opening in the present day, the scene in question takes us back to November 6, 1983 – i.e., the day that Will Byers went missing and set the show’s overarching narrative in motion.
After a brief chase sequence that sees Will almost managing to evade capture by a demogorgon in the Upside Down, he’s knocked unconscious after falling while trying to leap from one tree to another in a bid to escape from said demogorgon. Dragging Will to what appears to be the Upside Down’s version of Creel House, the demogorgon leaves the pre-teen as a gift for Vecna, aka one of the best Netflix shows’ primary villain.
Tying up Will with a number of those wet, slithery tendrils that make us squirm, Vecna expresses his satisfaction at being able to proceed with whatever is his grand plan is. Using his telekinetic abilities, he raises another, more sinister-looking tendril to Will’s face, attaches it to his mouth, and starts pumping some vile substance into Will’s body.
Some of this isn’t completely new to Stranger Things devotees. We already knew Will had been pumped full of… something in season 1 episode 7 because, when he’s rescued by his mom Joyce and Hawkins police chief Jim Hopper, he’s tied up in the same way he is here with the tendril still attached to his mouth.
In season 2, Will is also possessed by an entity that at the time was known as The Mind Flayer, which was presumably able to control Will using the substance that was forcibly put into him. He also coughs up a disgusting slug-like creature at the end of that season. Oh, and let’s not forget that Will can ‘sense’ when Vecna or some other entity from the Upside Down is nearby because the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
Stranger Things season 5 episode 1’s opening scene, then, is not only a callback to all that’s happened to Will thus far, but also fills in the gap in his story with regard to what went down in the Upside Down after his season 1 kidnapping. It also sets the stage for his importance to the show’s fifth and final installment, which was heavily teased in Stranger Things season 5’s official trailer, which might include a big spoiler.
Pleasing though it is to see that franchise overlords Matt and Ross Duffer are staying true to their word that Stranger Things 5 will answer our biggest questions about the show, there is one element of this extended clip that doesn’t sit right with me – that being the visual effects (VFX) tech that’s been used to de-age actor Noah Schnapp for this sequence.
This isn’t the first time that character de-aging has irked me. Its use in Indiana Jones 5, The Irishman, Gemini Man, and numerous other films and TV shows was similarly vexing because the final product just felt ‘off’.
It’s a feeling I haven’t been able to shake since I watched this extended sequence, either – and I’m not the only one. Whether it’s threads on Reddit pages like r/StrangerThings and r/Television, or places like X/Twitter, others are similarly unimpressed with the uncanny valley nature of it all.
Will we remember this by the time Stranger Things ends? Probably not; but, considering it’s the only extended sequence we’ve been given ahead of season 5’s launch, it’s going to be a hot topic of discussion until volume 1 arrives.
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