It was revealed that the two characters previously attended Hawkins High together in the “Stranger Things” spinoff play, “The First Shadow.”

Jamie Campbell Bower pitched Vecna speaking to Joyce in Stranger Things finale but ‘it just didn’t work’

It was revealed that the two characters previously attended Hawkins High together in the "Stranger Things" spinoff play, "The First Shadow."

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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January 7, 2026 1:27 p.m. ET

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Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna on 'Stranger Things' season 5. Credit:

COURTESY OF NETFLIX (2)

Jamie Campbell Bower is sharing his foiled *Stranger Things* finale pitch that would’ve seen Vecna/Henry Creel reconnect with a familiar face. **

While visiting *The Tonight Show* on Tuesday, the 37-year-old actor explained that he tried to squeeze in a brief moment in which Henry spoke with his high school classmate Joyce (Winona Ryder) prior to her chopping his head off, but that it just didn’t work. **

“I wanted to try and convey the words, ‘Please don’t,’” Bower explained. “I don’t know if anybody here has seen *The First Shadow* — which is the play that they’ve done of *Stranger Things* and the Henry Creel backstory – and, obviously, Henry and Joyce, within that, have met each other.”

Louis McCartney as Henry Creel, Alison Jaye as Joyce Maldonado, and ensemble in Netflix's 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' at Marquis Theatre on Broadway.

Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman/Netflix

*The First Shadow *follows Henry (Louis McCartney) as he grapples with his increasingly dangerous powers and starting his freshman year at Hawkins High. It’s there that he meets Joyce, as well as Hopper and Bob Newby. **

Joyce and Vecna’s high school days are also briefly depicted in season 5 of *Stranger Things*, when Max (Sadie Sink) and Holly (Nell Fisher) wade through Henry’s memories and spot Joyce handing out flyers for the school's theater production of *Oklahoma*.

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It’s that connection that Bower wanted to play upon in the final moments before Joyce enacts her fury upon him in the finale. **

“So when she walks up to him, I felt like, in that moment, that the humanity could come through a little bit more,” he said. “And that we could just reintroduce that level of potential… maybe he could be saved, at that point.” **

Bower, who recently made his Broadway debut in *The First Shadow*, explained that he’d previously pitched ideas for the show that were included in the final cut. **

“When we were doing season 4, there’s a bit where Eleven turns Vecna around — it’s when we’re in the Snow Ball — and she says, ‘Hi.’ And just before that, I growl,” he said. “We were in ADR and I was like, ‘It looks like I’m saying the word “you.” Can I add that in ADR?’ … So we tried it and it worked, and it was great.” **

However, it didn’t have the same effect this time around. “We get to ADR for season 5, I’m gurgling and I’m like, ‘I remember all I wanted to say was, “please don’t!”’ And we try it and it just didn’t work,” he said. “It didn’t land. But the emotion is there!”

“So you tried ‘please don’t?’” Host Jimmy Fallon asked, to which Bower responded, “I tried it, yeah. It wasn’t good.” **

When Fallon asked if the line just “didn’t fit the character,” Bower simply replied, “No.”

*Stranger Things* co-creators Ross Duffer told *Variety* that he was "sure" there was a moment in the 18-month time jump between seasons 4 and 5 in which Joyce and Hopper realized that Vecna was actually the quiet kid from their theater program.

"We had a walk a fine line with the play — we don’t want to frustrate, because so much of our audience is unable to see it," he explained. "To have them start talking about it would have been confusing in the context of someone who hasn’t seen the play. But I’m sure they did have that conversation." **

Watch Bower discuss the *Stranger Things* finale in the clip above.

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Source: “EW Sci-Fi”