Who is Mr. Whatsit in ‘Stranger Things’?

There’s a mysterious new character in Netflix‘s Stranger Things and his name is Mr. Whatsit.

**Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, now streaming on Netflix**

Stranger Things 5 opens in November 1987, a full year and a half after the events of Season 4. Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) is no longer a tiny tyke, but she still struggles to connect with her older siblings. The one person she’s got on her side? Her “imaginary friend” Mr. Whatsit.

Early on in Stranger Things Season 5 Episode 1 “The Crawl,” Holly is seen waving to the shadowy figure and even chatting with him outside her school’s playground. The problem is no one is there. She’s talking to dead air. It’s a huge cause of concern for her mother Karen (Cara Buono), but for Holly, Mr. Whatsit seems to be the only person being level with her.

When Holly tells her older brother Mike (Finn Wolfhard) about Mr. Whatsit, she says he’s only trying to help. According to Mr. Whatsit, there are monsters in Hawkins and they like to eat kids like her. Sure enough, by the first episode’s end, a monster is definitely coming for Holly.

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.