STRANGER THINGS Star Millie Bobby Brown Responds To Fan Theory About Eleven And The Upside Down

STRANGER THINGS Star Millie Bobby Brown Responds To Fan Theory About Eleven And The Upside Down

We're going to be waiting a while for Stranger Things to return to Netflix with its fifth and final season, and star Millie Bobby Brown has now shared her thoughts on an intriguing Upside Down fan theory.

By JoshWilding - Oct 21, 2023 08:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Stranger Things
Source: Variety (via SFFGazette.com)

In Stranger Things' fourth season, we finally learned more about Eleven's past and witnessed what appeared to be the creation of the Upside Down.

When the young Eleven clashed with the manipulative Henry Creel inside Hawkins lab (moments after he murdered her fellow gifted children), her powers tore open a hole to another dimension and left him stranded in the Upside Down where, in the years that followed, he transformed into the monstrous Vecna. It was a neat twist but one which raised a lot of questions. 

In that moment, did Eleven somehow create the Upside Down? If nothing else, we know her actions set the events of the series in motion but actress Millie Bobby Brown recently shared her take on the theory in an interview with Variety (via SFFGazette.com). 

"Of course," she responded when the trade asked if it was satisfying to finally get those long overdue answers. "I’ve had so many questions for years and years as to where Eleven came from, who she is. What were Dr. Brenner’s intentions? What are his intentions now? Is he still alive?"

"But, you know, the Duffer Brothers, they’re the only people in this world that know 'Stranger Things' better than we do. I trusted that they would always bring it home and answer everyone’s questions. So this season was the season that you will get all of those questions answered."

As for whether the Duffers told her Eleven created the Upside Down, Brown responded, "They did tell me. She does. She opens the rift."

However, she was quick to clarify, "This is too big of a debate for me to answer. I’m so worried. I think - no, no, no. I think that the alternate universe was always there. That is always going to be under Hawkins. I just think she has access to it. I don’t think that she created the Upside Down. No, I think that it was always there, I think she just created a gate to it which no one could before."

It's previously been revealed that the first season 5 episode will be titled "The Crawl," with Prey director Dan Trachtenberg at the helm. Shawn Levy will also step back behind the camera, but production was forced to come to a halt back in May due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike.

The latter is still ongoing, of course, meaning we don't know when Stranger Things will return for its fifth and final season (2024, however, is looking increasingly unlikely). 

Keep checking SFFGazette.com for the latest Stranger Things updates.

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Blergh
Blergh - 10/21/2023, 8:59 AM
Was that ever a question?
The place was always there as well as it's creatures. She just accessed it.
To me the implication was that the "Upside Down" is essntially everywhere, it's an endless place that mirrors our entire world.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/21/2023, 9:02 AM
@Blergh - yeah that's how I saw it too. With it's overgrown look, I kinda figured it was always there
mountainman
mountainman - 10/21/2023, 9:33 AM
@Blergh - Yes it was quite obvious she didn’t create the upside down, just banished Vecna to it. And once he was there he began to manipulate it.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/21/2023, 10:41 AM
@mountainman -
It's a shame Vecna is not interesting as a villain, at the moment I'm fully expecting Vecna to just stand there with his hands out facing Eleven while she does the same. There's no satisfying way to end this because it's too telepaths/telekenetics who can do whatever they want.

Unlike Legion, we don't even have a flashy way of visualizing the powers they have.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 10/21/2023, 12:50 PM
@Blergh - BINGO
Arthorious
Arthorious - 10/21/2023, 2:13 PM
@Scarilian - I’ll give credit to the Force Unleashed and the Old Republic game, they had some great visuals to how the force was used.
whoknows
whoknows - 10/22/2023, 3:21 AM
@Blergh - that’s actually not 100% accurate. We have no indication it mimics our entire world. Only Hawkins, in fact according to the Russian story, Hawkins is where the readings for the other dimension are strongest which I think is more suggestive that it mimics Hawkins, not necessarily Russia. And we do have indication as to it being frozen in time, at the day will went in. We know before will went in, it looked like an empty apocalyptic space/planet. But for some reason, will going in, locked the day. I just think there’s reasons why we haven’t seen the perimeters of the upside down Hawkins, also the only other place we’ve seen in the upside down since it changed to Hawkins is vecna’ head space, which is just a red swamp. So I’d imagine the rest of the upside down outside of Hawkins likely looks like that red swamp or like dimension looked when vecna was first sent there.
Which I think is really telling as to will being a cause for the upside down mimicking Hawkins, is it simply mimicking Hawkins because the gate opened in Hawkins? But then why wouldn’t it have been changed to Hawkins when vecna was first sent there, instead it’s only when the second gate opens and Will is sent there. So is it wills imagination that conjured up Hawkins because he was in dire need of a safe space, akin to vecna conjuring his broken home in the red swamp? Of course all fun speculation but I hope we see that will has some powers aside or deeer than just his connection to feeling when vecna is near or active. I hope something to do with his artistic creativity or through world building like dnd style, he some how created the upside down hawkins from an impression.
whoknows
whoknows - 10/22/2023, 3:32 AM
@mountainman - there’s not much to say that vecna manipulated the upside down environment itself(outside of maybe the vines.) but he did manipulate the dust/hive mind into the shadow monster.
If vecna was the one to turn upside down into hawkins, the upside down hawkins would have been stuck in 1979 when vecna was sent there but instead, it’s stuck in 1983x the exact day Will went to the upside down. It doesn’t seem the creation of the gate has to do with hawkins being in the the upside down, otherwise, the first gate in 1979 would have made the reflection so to me that’s more proof that it’s some how Will that made an impression on the upside down and created Hawkins’ Reflection.
I hope there’s some exploration into Will’s powers and it being strong than we thought. Because he has a very parallel story to vecna’s childhood, just the type of kids they were, very similiar and maybe vecna saw either the similiarity between him and Will’s loner weirdness or he saw similiarity with Will’s powers. Because there has to be a reason Vecna didn’t kill Will in season 1, like he killed Barbara, he’s protected Will many times. As if there is something special about Will that they haven’t divulged. We know he can sense vecna being active and stuff like that, but I feel like there’s som greater power being unspoken. Or maybe vecna will want Will’s body after having his body burnt and shotgunned. Who knows. But it’s fun to speculate.
whoknows
whoknows - 10/22/2023, 3:35 AM
@Scarilian - I think they do a good job juxtaposing different scenes to build intensity, while vecna and 11 are push fighting, the other kids are having their own battle, while Hopper is fighting a Demogorgon with a sword, they’ve done a very good job and keeping that intensity with sharing conflicts and conclusions with multiple scenes. And I’d imagine that would continue to the finale. Of course a straight up kind fight won’t look action packed or be super cool based on what they’ve show before but they’ll build the suspense in other ways to entertain us.
Order66
Order66 - 10/21/2023, 11:23 AM
From what I understand the alternate universe/upside down was always there. Eleven just opened it.
AnthonyVonGeek
AnthonyVonGeek - 10/21/2023, 3:26 PM
I forgot about this show. Only memorable season was the first. 🤷‍♂️
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 10/23/2023, 4:17 AM
@AnthonyVonGeek - Nah. I thought the 4th season was the best so far. People are still talking about it. The second had a drop off in quality, but they picked up well in the 3rd and 4th.

I’m just hoping for a satisfying conclusion.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 10/23/2023, 4:15 AM
I don’t think that was ever in question. When Vecna enters the upside down it took the audience through the initial discovery process of what was already there. Eleven just gave the UD a massive stamp to merge the two dimensions (hence why the UD has everything that was in our world on the day she opened the portal).
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