Stranger Things Fans Are Body Shaming Vecna Now, And Somehow It Says Everything About The Internet In 2025
A fictional villain showed up with a slimmer waist and the internet treated it like a full-blown scandal. Even the cast had thoughts.
There are certain things you expect from a new season of Stranger Things. Nostalgia. Chaos. A monster or two lurking where it shouldn’t. What you do not expect is a heated debate about the waistline of a creature who literally crawls out of the Upside Down.
Yet here we are, staring straight at one of the strangest internet moments of the year, watching people pick apart the physique of a villain who is not even human.
It started as a blink-and-you 'll-miss-it detail. Vecna stepped back onto the screen after an 18-month time jump, looking noticeably more… sculpted. The kind of transformation that would usually spark a “new year, new me” joke. Instead, it lit up feeds across the internet.
People weren’t marveling at the plot twists or the long-awaited return of beloved characters. They were busy zooming in on Vecna’s torso and debating his workout routine as if he had signed up for a fitness influencer sponsorship.
Fans didn’t hold back. Memes surfaced. Threads spiraled. And eventually, the conversation grew big enough that even the cast had to wade into the chaos. It all left many viewers wondering how we reached a point where even a supernatural villain can’t escape body commentary.
We waited three long years for Stranger Things season 5, only to learn the Hawkins timeline skipped ahead just 18 months.
Apparently, that was plenty of time for Vecna to roll back into the story looking like he discovered Pilates in the Upside Down.
Sure, Will Byers tapping into his own Eleven-style powers and that unsettling episode one flashback were supposed to be the big talking points. But this is 2025. If a character shows up on screen, real or not, someone is analyzing their waistline before the credits roll.
Jamie Campbell Bower’s nightmare-cloaked villain arrived this season with a noticeably cinched middle and a more muscular frame. Fans noticed instantly. So instantly, in fact, that Millie Bobby Brown ended up weighing in after social media nicknamed him “Ozempic Vecna”.
"It's funny that people are commenting on Vecna's body", she said during a monologue on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
"God help him if he gets a little lip filler", she added, poking fun at the way her own look has evolved over the years.
The moment went viral almost instantly. People couldn’t get over how surreal it felt that a creature built for nightmare fuel had somehow ended up at the center of a body-shaming conversation.
"'Vecna body shaming discourse' is such a perfect summary of the internet right now", one person joked.
"No because why was he so snatched in season 5?", another wrote.
"Vecna getting body-shamed was NOT on my 2025 bingo card. The Upside Down isn’t safe from anything", someone else said.
"Poor dude can’t even absorb souls in peace without getting dragged", another added.
Turns out even a monster from the Upside Down isn't safe from a comment section.
Netflix
The Vecna debate may feel silly, but it taps into something familiar. We live in a world where appearance talk crowds out almost everything, even in the realm of complete fiction. A creature built to terrify became a trending topic for reasons that had nothing to do with the story it came from. It’s a reminder of how quickly conversations shift, how easily humor and critique get tangled, and how nothing is safe from going viral.
If a monster from the Upside Down can spark a body-shaming moment, it says a lot about us. Share this with a friend who would laugh at the absurdity, too!
