Stranger Things Season 4 villain Vecna looks to be a rather gruesome foe, with fans getting a glimpse of him in the latest trailer. The Stranger Things Season 4 trailer itself stopped short of revealing Vecna’s name, but it has since been confirmed by series creators The Duffer Brothers and Netflix. What may interest gamers about Vecna’s name is that it’s actually named after a Dungeons & Dragons character.
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Dungeons & Dragons fans will recognize Vecna as an extremely powerful lich god, who was the source of two items in the tabletop role-playing game: the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna. Choosing to name this new villain after Vecna may clue fans in on what to expect from the monster in Stranger Things Season 4, and it should be noted that this is far from the first time that the show has referenced D&D.
Dungeons & Dragons has been heavily featured in Stranger Things over the years, with it used as a storytelling tool and to help the kids of Hawkins, Indiana make sense of the strange goings-on that they keep encountering. As some Stranger Things fans may recall, the Demogorgon monster from the first season of the show also got its name from Dungeons & Dragons, as did the Mind Flayer, so it’s no surprise to see this trend continue in Season 4.
What sets Vecna apart from other Stranger Things monsters so far is that it has a humanoid appearance. It also seems like it will have more of a defined personality than the other threats that the Stranger Things cast have encountered. Episode 2 of the new Stranger Things season is even called “Vecna’s Curse,” so it definitely seems like it’s going to have a significant role to play, but fans will have to tune in to the new episodes to find out for sure.
It will be interesting to see if Vecna makes a big enough impact on the Stranger Things lore for it to pop up in other media, like the various Stranger Things video game projects that have released over the years. That remains to be seen, but in the meantime, fans can look forward to the Season 4 premiere on May 27.
Stranger Things 4 premieres May 27 on Netflix.
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