[dramatic music plays]

[CLIP] Mike Wheeler: You're like a sorcerer. Your powers don't come from a book of spells. They're innate. Maybe all of this is happening for a reason.

[CLIP] Eleven: Will.

[CLIP] Dustin Henderson: Superpowers.

Ross Duffer: When we were breaking the season, we knew we wanted a big moment at the end of Volume 1 and, very early on, the idea was [that] it's got to be Will, because he was the kid that was taken in Season 1.

Noah Schnapp: I think what's most exciting for me is getting to watch Will grow. And it's really cool that they bring it full circle now in Season 5. He's back in Hawkins and he's back where it all started. But he is connected to Vecna in a way that we haven't seen before. He struggles with that monster inside of him and his guilt of, like, “Am I evil? Am I the monster? Am I responsible for all these things?”

[CLIP] Will Byers: I could feel this anger.

Maya Hawke: Once Robin is around Will, she just starts watching him, figuring out what he feels his weakness is right now and then also what his tremendous strength is, [and] that those two things are one.

[CLIP] Robin Buckley: I was looking for answers in somebody else, but I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so Goddamn scared.

Noah Schnapp: Throughout the whole story, Will has been so shy, so fearful, and you really just want to see him fight back. And this season it's finally paid off.

Ross Duffer: We'll read “Chapter Four: Sorcerer.”

Gaten Matarazzo: I was like, “They're going to do something truly insane,” and they did.

Finn Wolfhard: I was like, “Oh, yes. Okay, it's happening. This is real.”

[cast cheering]

Charlie Heaton: Yo!

Ross Duffer: We've always known that Will has a connection to the Upside Down and Vecna.

[CLIP] Vecna: We are going to do such beautiful things together, William.

Ross Duffer: So what if Will was able to harness these feelings and these powers and turn them against our villains?

Noah Schnapp: It was originally supposed to be like an Eleven move and we kind of landed on this move of, like, the outstretched hand up, where he's pulling the powers from Vecna.

Matt Duffer: It's not about him becoming this superhero. There is a lot that Will has been dealing with and we wanted him to grow as a human and truly accept who he is. Once he's able to do that, he is able to harness these powers.

Noah Schnapp: I would watch the [previsualization] for that scene almost every night for months because I was just so excited for it.

Winona Ryder: In that scene, Noah had a lot to do and he kind of blew me away.

Noah Schnapp: I really just channeled, like, a 6,000-pound gorilla. I would bang on my chest.

Ross Duffer: Noah had this ferocity to him on set. Hopefully you can feel that as an audience. It was just exciting to watch him hit a home run.

Noah Schnapp: That moment was incredible. It felt like an action movie. I feel like any actor dreams of getting a moment like that, with the fire around me and boom, boom, boom.

Ross Duffer: We wanted to build to a big climax that would leave people dying to see what happens next.

Jamie Campbell Bower: Something big is coming, something scary.

Millie Bobby Brown: Vecna's plan is more dangerous than ever.

Noah Schnapp: When it was over, it was like, “Wow, now what?”

[CLIP] Will Byers: Run! Run!