Note: This story contains spoilers for “Stranger Things” Season 5, Vol. 2
Not even Shawn Levy, an executive producer who’s been with “Stranger Things” since the beginning, fully understood what the Upside Down was the first time around.
“I am one of those audience members who are super grateful for the visual aids, props and drawings that the Duffers brilliantly use to illustrate and explain dense mythology,” Levy told TheWrap.
Put most simply, the Upside Down is a bridge between the real world and Vecna and the Mindflayer’s far more dark and disturbing world. Series creators Matt and Ross Duffer likened the realm to the 1957 war epic “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” a film about British prisoners of war trapped in Burma who are forced to build a railway bridge for their Japanese captors.
“It’s like a sci fi-version of that,” Matt Duffer told TheWrap. “In order to destroy it or remove the danger, you have to explode the bridge and separate our world from the abyss.”
When the Duffers originally pitched “Stranger Things” to Netflix, they hadn’t fully sorted out the mythology for the series. Though they insisted the logistics of their sci-fi world would be secondary to the character arcs during the show’s first seasons, producers at Netflix encouraged them to flesh out the lore of the show. That led to the Duffers creating a 20-page mythology document back in Season 1.
“I was actually, frankly, annoyed at the time, but now I’m really glad that we did it. It sort of formed the foundation for the mythology moving forward, and we haven’t wanted to reveal it up until now,” Ross Duffer told TheWrap. “We’ve been holding the cards to very, very close to the vest, so it’s been really nice to finally show our hand.”
According to the Duffers, the bridge that is the Upside Down was created when Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) first made a psychic connection. That action joined Hawkins to Vecna’s world, known as Dimension X.
“What you’re seeing in the Upside Down, while you’re seeing the vines and stuff, that the abyss coinciding with Hawkins, which why it’s frozen in time,” Ross Duffer explained. “We saw it as like an overlay between these two worlds.”
As for how the Duffers figured out how to explain this to the cast, crew and audience, the two relied heavily on writer Paul Dichter, a lover of hard sci-fi whom they called the Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) to their Steve (Joe Keery).
“Ross and I just get confused, so he’s the master of all this,” Matt Duffer joked. “We actually take a lot of those conversations we have in the writers room and map them onto the show.”
Even after the trio figured out how to explain the Upside Down, some were still confused. The drawing of an hourglass Dustin outlines on the glass of the DJ booth was actually a copy of a drawing the Duffer brothers made to explain the multiple realms to both Levy and Netflix.
“It absolutely became essential to not only understanding all of the mythology but maintaining clarity in my own brain. So I was really grateful that the Duffers drew it for me years prior and that they then had Dustin draw it for all the other characters and the viewers,” Levy said.
Levy wasn’t the only one confused by the mythology. The Duffers and writers kept explaining the Upside Down in different ways to help people understand it.
“It was so much grander than I’d ever imagined,” series star Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) told TheWrap. “It’s so satisfying to finally get the answers to these questions. What’s really special is the Duffers know that the importance of our show doesn’t just lie in the mythological, external stakes but also in the internal, intimate moments. They do a really good job, even with the grand scale of the season, at balancing both of those things.”
As for Jamie Campbell Bower, the actor behind Vecna, he didn’t understand what the Upside Down was initially. Once he started to get it, he did his research.
“It led me down really interesting rabbit holes with regards to books about theoretical quantum physics,” Bower said, pointing to the work of Dr. Michio Kaku. “I started reading about parallel universes and how they’re made and things like that. It’s really fascinating. I don’t know if I know any more now than I did when I first stepped in, but it’s certainly been a fun space to look at and explore.”
When it comes to the final episode, fans can expect to see more from Vecna’s world. But what exactly that will entail is still unknown.
“Who knows what you’re gonna see?” Ross Duffer teased. “It’s not a pleasant place, though. I will say that much.”
“Stranger Things” Season 5 Vol. 2 is now streaming on Netflix. The finale will be released Dec. 31 at 5 p.m. PT.
