Stranger Things has always sought inspiration from pop culture of different eras. But for the fifth season, creator Ross Duffer reveals that Star Wars being an inspiration for a key season from the first volume.
At the end of the fourth season, the town of Hawkins, saw its ground split, and the barrier between the real world and Upside Down, break open. But most significantly, Vecna was defeated, and disappeared.
The first volume, which premiered on November 27, finally revealed Vecna, who appeared to take away his 'perfect vessels' into the Upside Down. Speaking to Netflix, Duffer said, "We knew that when he arrived, we wanted it to feel like this huge moment. The minute he walked out of that gate, you felt the power of Vecna. You felt how scary he was." This weight of Vecna's entrance was inspired from the entrance of Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).
In Rogue One, at a seminal moment in a battle between the Rebels and the Empire, Darth Vader boards the Rebels' command ship trying to reclaim the plans for the Death Star, only to fail. But his entrance in the movie has been well received by fans. The 2016 film was directed by Gareth Edwards, and featured the voice of James Earl Jones, as Darth Vader.