How ‘Stranger Things’ Villain Vecna Was Inspired by the Night King From ‘Game of Thrones’

variety.com:

Wilson Chapman editorSpoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” the seventh episode of ‘Strangers Things’ Season 4, now streaming on Netflix.The first three seasons of “Stranger Things” saw plenty of memorable eldritch creatures terrorize the citizens of Hawkins, Ind., from the carnivorous Demogorgons to the colossal Mind-Flayer.

But Season 4 introduces perhaps the most terrifying foe yet in Vecna, played by Jamie Campbell Bower as both the monster itself and as its human form Henry Creel.

A “dark wizard” that stalks and murders teens struggling with depression and trauma, Vecna is the creation of BGFX, the prosthetic makeup company headed by Barrie Gower.Before joining the smash Netflix hit, Gower won three Emmys for “Game of Thrones,” which saw his company produce the prosthetics for the Night King, the ice-covered leader of the White Walker hordes that threaten Westeros.

When Gower got the call about working on “Stranger Things” in 2019, he was approached because series creators the Duffer Brothers were fans of his “Game of Thrones” work, and were looking to create a similar villain for the show’s upcoming season. “With season four, they were after a new, big iconic villain,” Gower says. “They decided that they wanted their own version of the Night King, an iconic figure, and they thought ‘Well, why don’t we just contact the guys who made the Night King?'”The design of Vecna was devised by the show’s senior concept illustrator Michael Maher Jr., who provided Gower and his team with art to base the prosthetics on.