For a long time, ‘Stranger Things‘ fans thought they had Henry Creel figured out. Season 4 made it feel pretty clear that Vecna was born broken, born powerful, and born dangerous. His abilities seemed like something that had always been inside him, waiting to surface.
But that version of the story isn’t the full truth. A canon stage play, ‘The First Shadow,’ tied directly to the Stranger Things universe, takes a deep dive into Henry’s past and focuses on one big question fans have argued about for years: where did Vecna actually get his powers from?
‘The First Shadow’ Reopens Vecna’s Origin Story
Netflix’s stage play, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” explains Henry Creel before he became Vecna. From the start, the stage play positioned itself as essential canon, and its biggest mission was clear: rewriting what fans thought they knew about Henry Creel. Rather than expanding the Upside Down lore casually, the play zeroes in on the exact moment Henry’s life went off the rails.
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‘The First Shadow‘ travels back to Henry’s early years, long before he became Vecna and long before Hawkins descended into chaos. The story builds a slow, unsettling trail toward the idea that his powers came from somewhere else entirely, not by birth. The origin of Henry’s powers begins decades before he is even born.
‘The First Shadow‘ opens in 1943 with the Philadelphia Experiment, where the U.S. military attempts to make a submarine invisible during World War II. The experiment fails catastrophically, sends the USS Eldridge into another dimension, and unleashes creatures that slaughter nearly the entire crew. Only one man survives, and that survival becomes the seed of everything that follows.
How Henry Became Powerful
That exposure permanently changes his blood, and the stories he later tells his son leave a deep mark. That son grows up to become Dr. Martin Brenner, whose obsession with other dimensions shapes everything that follows in Hawkins. Brenner later starts the Nevada Experiment to recreate what happened during the war. When one scientist steals equipment and runs a secret test in a cave near where the Creel family lives, things spiral fast.
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A young Henry explores the cave at the worst possible time and walks straight into the event that changes his life forever. The stage play makes this part very clear: Henry is not born with psychic powers. When the experiment opens a portal, Henry and the scientist are pulled into another dimension for twelve hours. During that time, Henry comes into contact with the Mind Flayer.
The creature infects him and gives Henry psychic abilities, but it also twists his mind and emotions. His powers come from that infection, not from within himself. They are forced onto him, and the damage starts immediately. This completely changes how fans see Vecna. Henry doesn’t create the Mind Flayer, and he doesn’t control it. The play shows that the Mind Flayer is the one in charge, using Henry as its weapon once he returns to the real world.
This origin story makes Vecna feel very different. He is still cruel and terrifying, but now, fans know his powers come from something far bigger than him.
