It won’t be much longer before fans will be watching the beginning of Stranger Things Season 5 with a Netflix subscription and seeing the final chapter of the acclaimed series unfold. As expected, the war between humanity and the Upside Down is going to be big. Fortunately, for the residents of Hawkins, Indiana, Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven is getting a considerable boost in power, with one of the EPs even making a Star Wars connection while explaining it.
Eleven’s telekinetic abilities have always been impressive, and they’ve aided her and her allies on various occasions over the course of ST. What we’ll see in Season 5, however, seems to be unlike anything that’s come before. As for the extent of those abilities, Matt Duffer spoke to Empire and referred to a certain fictional power within the galaxy far, far away to describe El’s abilities:
She has better control over her powers and can use them in more innovative ways. The closest example, I’d say, is probably the Force.
Eleven’s powers were further illustrated by an exclusive photo shared with Empire. The pic shows the teen jumping over a school bus with ease, and that’s something she definitely couldn’t do in previous seasons. In fact, up to this point, she’s only been able to accomplish smaller telekinetic feats through most of Stranger Things, and the act of doing so drained her. So it’s intriguing to hear Matt Duffer compare her new skills to the the Force.
That said, reliving the trauma of the Nina project helped El unlock many of the abilities she lost, and she may have been able to tap into more techniques as well. Despite that, however, he noted that Stranger Things fans shouldn’t expect her to become some massive force of nature. Ross Duffer acknowledged El’s upgrade but also used two specific heroes to illustrate what she won’t be like:
She’s not suddenly like Neo or Superman, flying through the sky, but she’s definitely stronger now.
In spite of that, based on what we’ve seen in Stranger Things final season trailer so far, Eleven mirrors Luke Skywalker following his training with Yoda. This is to say, she’s strong enough to take down Jabba’s palace handily, but she might need backup to take down someone of the caliber of Emperor Palpatine. Palpatine, in this case, is Vecna, who is using the Mind Flayer and other forces to change the world.
Fortunately, Eleven has more than enough backup in the form of her friends, all of whom are seen in the trailer doing their part to try and save the day in Stranger Things. The Duffer Brothers think they have a tear-jerker of a finale on their hands, which may mean we may end this series with a few members of the gang meeting their ultimate fates by the end of the show.
The good news is that the ST finale is still a ways off, as the runtime of Volume 1 alone exceeds four hours in length. The first batch of episodes is set to drop on November 26th, just in time for families in the United States to gather for Thanksgiving. It should make for some good talk around the dinner table, including discussions of Jedi comparisons involving El.
It’s wild to think Stranger Things‘ return is not that far away, especially after how long fans have waited to see this final season! Kill what time remains by checking out other upcoming Netflix shows as they arrive, and get ready for what should be a wild time.