Warning: Major SPOILERS lie ahead for Stranger Things season 5, volume 1!After years of worldbuilding, Stranger Things season 5 is finally starting to make Vecna’s plans more clear, with the volume 1 ending also leaving him and Noah Schnapp’s Will off on a major cliffhanger note. The opening of the latest season of the Netflix sci-fi horror series confirmed that Jamie Campbell Bower’s character was behind Will’s initial disappearance into the Upside Down, having sent Demogorgons out to capture him.

Building up to Stranger Things season 5 volume 1’s ending, it comes to be revealed that Will is one of 12 children Vecna needs to attach to his hive mind in order to begin enacting his plans of bringing the Upside Down into the main world. After a tense confrontation between the two, in which the villain explains that those he chooses are weak in mind, and thus easier to break and control, Will successfully stops a Demogorgon from attacking Caleb McLaughlin’s Lucas with newly unlocked telekinetic powers.

Looking at this shocking cliffhanger ending in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan, Bower revealed his very intrigued thoughts on Will and Vecna’s dynamic going forward in Stranger Things season 5. The star first explained that, because of his empathetic approach to his work, in which an actor ends up “feeling so much for your character,” he was actually “slightly frustrated” to see Vecna briefly stopped by Will.

However, without giving away what’s to come from volume 2, releasing on Christmas Day, and the series finale, debuting on Netflix on New Year’s Eve followed by theaters New Year’s Day, Bower did express his excitement at how Will and Vecna’s cliffhanger will change things going forward, especially given Will’s powers are a “byproduct of the connection that they have between them“:

I think it is very, very exciting to now almost have two adversaries rather than just one. And as you’ll see, as the show goes on, [Will] becomes more of a vexation than he has been already.

Ever since Vecna was revealed as the true mastermind behind the Upside Down’s attacks on Hawkins in Stranger Things, theories have abounded as to how involved he was in Will’s kidnapping, with some believing he took Will himself, while others felt he sent the lower forces of the Demogorgons and Mind Flayer after him. Some even theorized that Will would again be potentially possessed and used by Vecna to try and take down Eleven and their friends, using whatever connection Schnapp’s character still holds to the Upside Down accordingly.

One thing that Stranger Things season 5 volume 1’s ending did pull out as a surprise was Will having proper telekinetic powers, after the closest thing he had to any type of power previously was his ability to sense when Vecna and his forces were nearby. It doesn’t necessarily serve as a complete retcon of either of their histories in the series, given Henry Creel’s blood was used in the hopes of infusing many of Dr. Brenner’s subjects with powers, including Eleven herself.

With the opening of the season showing Will having been force-fed something in a fleshy tube by Vecna during his initial time in the Upside Down, it does seem likely this was more than just Demogorgon eggs, as season 2 made out to believe. This would also further explain why Will and Eleven appear to be more sensitive to Vecna and the Upside Down’s ongoing connection than Kali from season 2, even though she was subject to the same experiments.

Going into the rest of Stranger Things season 5, Will being confirmed to have powers is going to be a big boon in the party’s fight to take out Vecna. While he currently only appears to have telekinetic powers, volume 2 could show him to have the same mind-viewing abilities as El, which would be handy for saving Holly, Max and the rest of the kids from Vecna’s grasp. Whatever the outcome may be, though, it is clear from Bower’s comments that the epic showdown he’s hoped for between the characters is about to come true.

Be sure to dive into some of our other Stranger Things season 5 coverage with:

• Shawn Levy explaining why Stranger Things season 5 is the end for the series
• Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke & Natalia Dyer on the show’s most rewarding and taxing scenes
• Millie Bobby Brown assuring Stranger Things season 5’s ending will avoid other finale complaints
• Noah Schnapp confirming that Will Byers gets a definitive ending in the final season
• Charlie Heaton explaining how Jonathan Byers’ story is different from prior seasons
• Shawn Levy addressing the ambiguous fate of the Byers family’s dog nine years after season 1
• Shawn Levy naming his favorite Stranger Things scenes