Shawn Levy on Filming Max’s Escape From Vecna

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 2 of “Stranger Things, now streaming on Netflix.

Once more unto the breach, “Stranger Things” viewers.

In the last episode of Volume 2 of the fifth and final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” the whole Hawkins gang is setting out on a mission to destroy Vecna once and for all by venturing into the Abyss — a world connected to ours via a wormhole we know as the Upside Down.

Throughout Episodes 5, 6 and 7 — which comprise Volume 2 — creators Matt and Ross Duffer gave us more “Stranger Things” lore than ever before, and set up the stakes for the upcoming series finale, dropping at 5 p.m PT on Dec. 31.

They revealed Henry’s powers were spread to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her Hawkins Lab siblings through blood transfusions on pregnant mothers, and that the military tried use Kali’s (Linnea Berthelsen) blood to restart the experiment — but would much prefer El’s blood, which is why they’ve been hunting for her.

They showed a young Henry Creel stumble down a mine shaft in the desert of Nevada, a scene viewers who have seen Broadway play “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” will recognize as the day Henry somehow entered Dimension X, left with some newfound powers and was fundamentally changed into the evil person we know today. He meets an injured man protecting a briefcase holding something valuable enough to shoot Henry in the hand to try to protect it.

There was Will’s (Noah Schnapp) emotional coming out scene, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) cathartic breakup scene, Max’s (Sadie Sink) epic return to the world of the living and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and so much more.

Here to break it all down for Variety — and tease where things will go in the “Stranger Things” series finale —  is executive producer Shawn Levy, who directed Episode 6 and co-directed Episode 7 alongside the Duffer brothers.

We now know Eleven is the most successful of Brenner’s experiments because she tolerated the blood transfusion from Henry the best. And this means that even if the team kills Vecna, this cycle is not over, because the military wants to use El to make more kids like her. Kali tells El they should kill themselves to end it. Can you talk about creating those life and death stakes for Eleven going into the series finale?

Well, first of all, that was incredibly concisely summarized.

Thank you.

I hope that if anyone ever asks me to summarize the plot revelations of Volume 2, I can just remember your words, because they were incredibly succinct. I mean, to your point, these are profound existential questions being asked in Volume 2. And this deep questioning of, what is sacrifice? What is a worthy sacrifice? And how do you put the needs of the many in front of the needs of oneself? These are age-old existential questions, and I am really excited for fans to see our show wrestle with them.

We hopefully do it in ways that are emotional and still entertaining. But when you have characters like Holly and El questioning profound life and death values, like the ones they wrestle with in Volume 2, those scenes need to be handled with care. They need to be written with nuance, and they then need to be performed and directed with sensitivity to the weight of the issues being grappled with.

What did you want to show with the scene where Max and Holly (Nell Fisher) say goodbye in Vecna’s mind in Episode 6? How did you work through what real-world Max would look like, and what she could feasibly do to help now that she’s back?

The end of Episode 6, that was a really memorable day because I was given the privilege of directing a scene that required both actresses to deliver big time and with tremendous emotional weight. The writing was excellent. The actors, Nell and Sadie, stepped up so impressively, but it had this added layer of meaning for Sadie and I, because Episode 6 of Season 5 is in some ways an echo of our “Dear Billy” episode [Episode 4, Season 4] that Sadie and I are sort of connected for life in from Season 4. A similar red void, a similar epic run using both real speed and slow motion, and set against, no coincidence here, a new orchestration of “Running Up That Hill.”

It’s certainly a sequence that I’ll cherish forever, because it served as a bookend to “Dear Billy” in many ways, and it allowed Sadie and I to revisit that sequence from the end of “Dear Billy” that we will carry with us forever. Because even if we wanted to leave it behind, audiences around the world remind us of that sequence pretty much every day of our lives. So the design of this abstract red void with these extraordinary, odd, otherworldly structures, but with a glimpse of the world that is on the other side, the aspirational yearning that Max has carried with her is manifested. And when she looks through that cloudy portal and sees herself with Lucas next to her, still holding vigil, it was such an emotion premise for a scene, and I think it’s clear that it resonated emotionally for Sadie and all of us who were part of that sequence.

One day I’ll never forget filming Season 5 was that first scene after Max comes back to life when she is on that table in that laundry room. And it took, like, one take for her and Caleb to deliver some of their most beautiful work in any season. Many of us were teary as we watched these beautiful actors do such great work. I think that Max’s superpower, having returned to life, to the world, is that, as I think we say in the show, she’s been on the other side. She has, in some ways, mapped the target, and can therefore be an essential ally in strategizing how we go at that target, how we go after Vecna.

Can you talk about the choice to have Nancy and Jonathan’s relationship, which was built on a deep trauma bond, end by them having a new deeply traumatic shared experience that caused them to be honest?

I love that the Duffers and the writers named the fact on camera, in character, they named the fact that the Nancy-Jonathan connection has been rooted in shared trauma. So I like that there’s an awareness, not only in the writing of the show, but in the characters. And we always knew that this was going to be the watershed “Jancy” scene that was almost a decade in the making, and it’s a long scene. It’s incredibly rich in its writing, and it’s acting, and Natalia and Charlie prepared for months for that scene. And I think in acknowledging the shared trauma in their history, Jonathan and Nancy are able to be honest about their past and clear-eyed in assessing their present and would-be future.

What’s it like to direct the revelations about what Vecna actually going to do, turn the world into the Upside Down? Is Vecna just a nihilist?

Well, for one thing, I would say that for those of us, and anyone who has seen “The First Shadow” on stage, that “Stranger Things” play fills in a lot of blanks about Henry Creel’s backstory. And for me personally, knowing that I was going to be directing Jamie as Henry/One/Vecna in our final season, the stage play gave me a much deeper empathy for Vecna, and it gave me an understanding of the wounds he carries, where they came from, and how formative they were in his youth.

So yes, current day Vecna seems to be just straight up nihilistic, but the world has hurt him so much that now he just wants to hurt it back.

Directing Noah Schnapp in Will’s coming out scene in Episode 7, did you have any specific discussions about preferences in what Will would do and how others would react — even subtle details?

Certainly that’s a question worth asking the Duffers. So Matt, Ross and I all chatted and worked with Noah well in advance of shooting that scene. And I personally ran through the scene with Noah and talked through it and the evolution of Will’s sharing in it. Bear in mind that Noah, quite famously and quite publicly, brings personal experience to that scene. So we came with a lot of instincts about how to approach it. And between Matt and Ross and I, and with the benefit of exceptional writing by the Duffers, it was about calibrating the feeling and calibrating how emotional Will gets at what stage of the scene.

And as far as all of the listeners, all of those reaction shots that for me personally, as just a viewer, those are what really break me. Those cutaways to Jonathan to Robin to Max to Mike, those are just authentic reactions of Noah’s castmates and friends as their buddy gave a powerhouse performance in an all-timer of a scene. What you see on screen is what went down on that set, and it’s just authentic and honest and required very little prep or discussion.

What was your final day on set like?

Like for everyone, the last day was an emotional day. The two moments I will personally never forget are the very small, intimate read through of the final episode. It was literally the cast and maybe a half-dozen other people that were allowed in that room. I was lucky enough to be one of them — because I’ve walked the long road over a decade with the show — that day. And the way those actors, and particularly those young actors, came undone emotionally as we read it, is something so beautiful. I’ll never forget it.

And then on my very last day, I went to the Wheeler basement, and it was empty. No one was shooting there, and I sat on those stairs, and I sat on that couch, and I just steeped myself in 10 years of memories, 10 years of this challenge, and above all, 10 years of this privilege of being a part of this show as both an executive producer and frequent director. It’s changed me forever, and I sat there in the quiet of that iconic basement feeling very grateful.

The man with briefcase that Henry meets in that mine shaft in the Nevada desert. What’s in that briefcase, Shawn? Is there more to the Henry/Dimension X story of how Henry got his powers that day in the desert than was shown in “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” that’s coming in the finale?

Yes. Hard, yes. Emphatic, “yes,” he said, as he nodded his head vigorously.

Is the Abyss, the other world where Henry is — which is connected to Earth via the Upside Down/wormhole — also Dimension X, the place he originally entered when he first got his powers in the desert as a child?

That is a really great question you should ask the Duffers. And you can tell them that I believe I am correct in saying, no. It’s the Abyss, and I believe the Abyss is not Dimension X. Ask the Duffers, and I can’t wait to read your article, so I can finally understand the answer.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

• The Duffer Brothers Break Down All the Volume 2 Spoilers
• The Duffer Brothers Break Down All the Volume 1 Spoilers
• Our 13 Burning Questions Ahead of the Series Finale
• Noah Schnapp on That Scene in Volume 2
• Noah Schnapp on Turning Into the [SPOILER] in Volume 1
• Sadie Sink on Max’s Key Role in Volume 1
• Nell Fisher on Playing Holly Wheeler in Season 5
• The Cast of ‘Stranger Things’ on the Show’s Final Days
• Variety’s “Stranger Things” Oct. 15 Cover Story About the Duffers
• Cara Buono on Karen’s Kick-Ass Hero Moment (At Last)
• The Duffer Brothers on the ‘Stranger Things’ Spinoff
• Linda Hamilton on Being Millie Bobby Brown’s ‘Biggest Fan’
• Shawn Levy on ‘Sticking the Landing’ for Season 5
• David Harbour on How ‘Stranger Things’ Has Changed Him