Game of Thrones’ Night King inspired the design of Vecna in Stranger Things Season 4

The Night King from Game of Thrones is one of the most iconic villains in pop culture. Even though he terrified the viewers for a decade all through the 8 seasons, his anticlimactic death without causing any significant destruction disappointed a lot of fans. However, the design of the character was amazing, and the makeup artists did a perfect job of making him look menacing on-screen. Hence, it should come as no surprise when another iconic villain-in-the-making from Stranger Things took inspiration from Night King’s design, to create the same horrifying effect.

Stranger Things Season 4’s new big bad Vecna is the creation of BGFX, the prosthetic makeup company headed by Barrie Gower, who had previously won three Emmys for Game of Thrones. Gower was responsible for the design and makeup of The Night King, and he explained to Variety how he used that experience in the creation of Vecna:

“With season four, they [Duffer Brothers] were after a new, big iconic villain. 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?’”

“We’ve been running our company for about 10 years now and we’ve done some quite extensive makeup, but I think that Vecna is definitely the most extensive sized prosthetic makeup we’ve ever done before,” Gower says. “It’s the same sort of process as the Night King but much bigger in scale.”

Vecna also took a lot of inspiration from the iconic Nightmare on Elm Street slasher Freddy Kruger, in terms of both looks and his powers. Have you watched Stranger Things 4 yet? Tell us in the comments below!