News Stranger Things Stranger Things: What Happened to Will in the Upside Down? Even the Duffer Brothers Didn’t Know at First “Season one, to be honest, we were just shocked that we had a show… ” By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 20, 2025 Courtesy of Netflix Comment 0 Share New Share Courtesy of Netflix Travel back with me to season one of Stranger Things, where the inciting incident was twelve-year-old Will (Noah Schnapp) disappearing into the Upside Down, an alternative version of Hawkins where things were dark, gray, and inhabited by Demogorgons. We didn’t get details as to what Will went through during his time there, in large part because the show’s creators, Ross and Matt Duffer, didn’t really think about it. “Season one, to be honest, we were just shocked that we had a show,” Matt said in an interview with Deadline. “We had no thought in our minds that it was going to be ongoing.” Once the show was picked up for a second season, however, the brothers put their thinking caps on and, as Ross told Deadline, “started talking about more of a sentient being behind all of this… that’s really where we started to build out most of the mythology, which became Vecna and Henry and One.” The opening scene for Stranger Things 5, which Netflix recently released, reveals what Will goes through, something that was news even for Schnapp. “The first five minutes was so gratifying for me,” he told Deadline. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I finally know what happened,’ but it’s helpful, honestly, to play and perform.” He added that he had some idea about what happened to Will when he talked to the Duffer brothers after season four, but that he didn’t really know the details until he read the script for season five’s first installment. And even after his discussions with the Duffers, the scene surprised him. “I mean, everyone thought he was very weak, and I thought he was hiding the whole time,” he said. “I didn’t know he was running and climbing a tree and shooting. It’s the setup for the season that he’s stronger than we may have believed, which helps in the performance as well, to know as much as I can.” Check out the opening scene yourself below. We can watch the rest of the episode when the first part of Stranger Things 5 starts streaming on Netflix on November 26, 2025.[end-mark] The post <i>Stranger Things</i>: What Happened to Will in the Upside Down? Even the Duffer Brothers Didn’t Know at First appeared first on Reactor.