Jamie Campbell Bower is no stranger to playing unsettling characters in Stranger Things, having embodied Vecna, One and Henry Creel. But in Season 5, Volume 2, the actor believes he has tapped into something even more disturbing with Mr WhatsIt, a version of the character shaped by real-world cult leaders.
Speaking about his preparation for the role, Bower revealed that Jim Jones, the infamous leader of the Peoples Temple, was a key reference point. “Jim Jones was an early reference for me,” he said too Variety, explaining that the idea of erasing individuality was central to the performance. “There were points where I thought, ‘Do I say the word “you” or do I use the word “we”? ‘We’re a family now.’ That’s really grim. It completely removes autonomy, so there had to be that level of cult leader-esqueness about him.”
While Mr WhatsIt may not carry the overtly monstrous appearance of Vecna, Bower said the role was no less frightening to inhabit. “There was so much fear in playing that,” he admitted, describing the experience as deeply unsettling in a very different way.
Bower also noted that his approach in Season 5 was a sharp contrast to Season 4, where much of his work involved exploring Henry’s past. This time, the challenge lay in concealment rather than revelation. “What you saw in Season 4 happened, and it was real,” he said. “Now it’s about how kind I can appear to these children to make them feel safe and how much of my own experience I’m burying beneath that.” He added that playing someone whose intentions are hidden, especially opposite young actors, was “really scary” due to the “level of real dishonesty” involved.
Despite the character’s increasingly violent arc, Bower insists there is still a trace of humanity within him. “There’s definitely a humanity that I can see,” he said, though he acknowledged that how much of it surfaces in this volume is open to interpretation. “There’s trauma and experience there, but it’s largely unexplored at this point.”
After watching the stage prequel Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Bower became convinced that a pivotal incident in Henry’s childhood fundamentally altered him. Determined to understand it fully, he pressed creators Matt and Ross Duffer for more insight. “It was something I really had to pry out of them,” he said. “They wanted to protect it, but it was important for me to know why Henry was never the same. So I took what I learnt from the play and kept asking questions.”
That mystery begins to surface in Episode 6, when Max and Holly move through Henry’s memories and witness a violent encounter in a mine shaft involving a wounded man and a silver suitcase. When asked what the case contains, Bower offered a single-word tease: “reason”.
As for the endgame, Bower warned viewers not to get too comfortable with their theories. Episode 7 ends with Henry seated at the Creel dining table alongside the children he has abducted, many of whom revere him almost religiously. “The end of 7 is an incredible setup for what’s coming,” he said. “If you think you know what happens at the start of Episode 8, you’re probably wrong. It really blows up. Whatever you think you know will be exceeded.”
The final episode of Stranger Things Season 5 arrives on Netflix on December 31, promising an ending that, according to Bower, will defy every expectation.
