Stranger Things Season 5 Is Copying a Lot From the Worst Star Wars Movie (& It Teases the Real Villain)

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The Star Wars series has always sparked debate, and recent installments like The Acolyte and The Last Jedi have deeply divided fans. However, most viewers agree that The Rise of Skywalker was a major disappointment. It tried to undo some of the interesting choices made in The Last Jedi, relied too much on familiar elements without earning it, and ultimately didn’t tell a very satisfying story to end the Skywalker family’s saga. That’s why it’s surprising to see the final season of Stranger Things share so many of the same problems.

The new season of Stranger Things starts with a scene reminiscent of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Just like Rey’s training in the jungle with Leia, Eleven goes through a challenging obstacle course set up by Jim Hopper. This scene highlights how much time has passed and demonstrates that Eleven has been training to prepare for the dangers of the Upside Down.

Season 5 of Stranger Things, specifically Volume 2, draws striking parallels to The Rise of Skywalker. In the show, Holly Wheeler uses markings on a stolen spyglass to pinpoint a location within Henry Creel’s mind. This mirrors a plot device from the Star Wars film where a special dagger reveals a hidden path based on a seemingly impossible coincidence. Fans disliked this dagger because it felt like a contrived way to move the story forward. While Stranger Things places its version of this tool within a psychic landscape, the spyglass still feels like an easy, and somewhat frustrating, solution. The connections between the two stories don’t stop there, as Stranger Things might also be heading towards a similar reveal about its villain.

Is the Mind Flayer Returning Just Like Palpatine?

The phrase “Somehow, Palpatine returned” became a popular joke because Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brought Emperor Palpatine back with very little explanation or preparation. It felt like a forced plot twist designed to create drama, and it diminished the story’s impact. Now, Stranger Things seems to be heading in a similar direction with the Mind Flayer. The latest season focuses on Holly and Max discovering a hidden memory where a young Henry is confronted by a scientist. The scene ends with Henry opening a mysterious suitcase, and this connects to the backstory revealed in the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which shows Henry was affected by an ancient evil even before he became a monster.

In The First Shadow, we learn that Henry wasn’t born with psychic powers. They developed after a top-secret military experiment called Project Rainbow in 1943. The project tried to make the USS Eldridge invisible, but instead, it accidentally sent the ship to a strange, ancient dimension called Dimension X, later identified as The Abyss. The only survivor of this mission was Dr. Martin Brenner’s father, who came back with altered blood and knowledge of the Mind Flayer – creatures living in that dimension. Years later, young Henry found stolen technology in a Nevada cave which transported him to The Abyss for twelve hours. When he returned, he was changed by a shadowy being, which altered his personality and gave him the powers he would later use to kill his family.

Season 5 of Stranger Things is hinting that the Mind Flayer will return as the main villain by showing how characters’ past traumas affect them. However, if the Mind Flayer is revealed to be the real mastermind behind everything, it could feel similar to the controversial twist with Palpatine in Star Wars, making Vecna seem less important. To avoid a similar negative reaction, the show’s writers need to make the Mind Flayer’s return feel earned and connected to the ongoing ‘Project Rainbow’ storyline, rather than just a surprising reveal.

As a huge fan of Stranger Things, I’m so excited that Volume 2 of Season 5 is finally here on Netflix! We’ve been waiting a long time, and it looks like the final chapter of this amazing supernatural story will be released on January 31st. I can’t wait to see how it all ends!

Is the Mind Flayer the true big bad of Stranger Things, or will the show continue to center the story around Vecna? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion in the ComicBook Forum!

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2025-12-28 21:40