An enigmatic character has emerged in Netflix’s Stranger Things, and he goes by the name Mr. Whatsit.

**Spoiler Alert: Details from Stranger Things Season 5 are ahead, currently available for streaming on Netflix**

The fifth season of Stranger Things kicks off in November 1987, marking a significant leap of a year and a half since the dramatic conclusion of Season 4. Holly Wheeler, played by Nell Fisher, has grown beyond her toddler years but still finds it challenging to build rapport with her older siblings. In her world, the only reliable confidante is her so-called “imaginary friend,” Mr. Whatsit.

In the premiere episode of Season 5, titled “The Crawl,” viewers witness Holly engaging with a shadowy figure, seemingly holding conversations with him near her school playground. However, the unsettling reality is that no one else can see him. To her mother, Karen, portrayed by Cara Buono, this behavior is worrying, but for Holly, Mr. Whatsit is a source of comfort and honesty.

Holly shares her mysterious friend with her brother Mike, played by Finn Wolfhard, explaining that Mr. Whatsit only aims to protect her. He warns her of monsters lurking in Hawkins with a taste for children like herself. By the episode’s conclusion, it becomes apparent that Holly might indeed be in danger as a monster begins to close in on her.

So who is Mr. Whatsit? Is he real? Is Mr. Whatsit a new villain or perhaps the return of a fallen hero, like Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn)? Here’s everything you need to know about Mr. Whatsit in Stranger Things…and warning! THESE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS!

Who is Mr. Whatsit in Stranger Things?

So who is Mr. Whatsit? Well, at the end of Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 2 “The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler,” we learn the awful truth. Mr. Whatsit is Vecna in his most charming, dapper, Henry Creel form.

Mr. Whatsit (Jamie Campbell Bower) has cozying up to kids like Holly Wheeler to stalk, hunt, and kidnap them. Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) feels his connection to the mind hive pinprick back into place at almost the exact time Mr. Whatsit makes his move. Because of this, Will’s able to tap back into his mental connection to Vecna to piece together how Mr. Whatsit’s picking victims and luring them away.

Vecna appears to his victims as a friend only after also infiltrating their mind. This is why Will was able to see what Holly was seeing, spinning on the playground merry-go-round, in Episode 1, and how Will was able to figure out that Derek Turnbow (Jake Connelly) would be the supervillain’s next victim.

Okay, but why is he called Mr. Whatsit? Well, it’s a play on the friendly Mrs. Whatsit from Holly’s favorite book, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. In that novel, young Meg Murry gets whisked away on a cosmic, inter-dimensional journey to save her imprisoned father by the kind and powerful beings Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which.

So, yeah, Mr. Whatsit is just Vecna’s latest alter ego. He’s a bad guy and not a real ally. Oh, and he’s definitely not a resurrected Eddie Munson. Despite all the super cool fan theories out there, Eddie Munson doesn’t come back in Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1… Maybe he will in Part 2?

Stranger Things Season 5 Part 2 comes out on December 25, 2025.