Stranger Things Season 5 is bringing back an unexpected major villain and he is none other than Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner.
The actor took to his Instagram to share a sneak peek with #strangerthingsseason5, #drbrenner, #papa, and #indestructible in the captions, which confirms that he will be a part of the show’s final season.
He has a bald cap, blonde eyebrows, and makeup, which suggests that his character has experienced significant aging on the show. With Stranger Things Season 5 picking after 18 months from the penultimate season, it is yet to be seen how Dr. Brenner has aged so significantly.
But age is the least of our concerns here as he was dead when we last saw him, so how come he is back in the finale? What tricks do the makers have up their sleeve with Dr. Brenner?
Here is everything to know about Dr. Brenner in Stranger Things Season 5.
How can Stranger Things Season 5 accommodate Dr. Brenner’s character after his death?
Modine’s Instagram post confirms that he is a part of Stranger Things Season 5, and with a sci-fi show having an alternate portal, this doesn’t seem impossible. But Dr. Brenner was shot dead when we last left him in the penultimate season, trying to redeem himself by ‘saving’ Eleven from the Military.
While Eleven has had a difficult relationship with Dr. Brenner, whom she called Papa, there is no doubt that unwaveringly, she did think of him as a father figure until Hopper came into her life.
Eleven spent most of Season 4 trying to come to terms with the truth of her Papa and how he reduced his ‘children’ to test subjects for his own good and the sanctity of his experiments. But Dr. Brenner’s return in Season 5 brings a host of responsibilities.
One of the obvious is that he somehow miraculously survived, which would be a story rehash for Season 5. Another possibility could be that he is a part of Eleven’s hallucinations or visions, as controlled by Vecna or the new villain.
Since his character significantly affects Eleven, it may be used against her in the final season.
Dr. Brenner has once cheated death. Will this happen again in Stranger Things Season 5?
Dr. Brenner’s return in Stranger Things Season 5 is also interesting because this is not the first time he has cheated death on the show. He was seemingly dead in Season 1 after the Demogorgon attacked him, but Eleven learns from a CIA agent that he is alive and working in a secret lab.
While she chooses not to hunt him down in Season 2 because of her newfound family in Hawkins, Dr. Brenner re-appears in Season 4, where he is working in a secret Silo-like lab in the deserts of New Mexico.
After witnessing the massacre done by one of his test subjects, Number One, in Season 1, he reports everything to his superior and is working on a secret mission when we meet him in Season 4. It is later revealed to be the NINA project investigating the alternate portal, the Hawkins Gate.
It is unlikely that the show will rehash this story again for the final season, but nothing can be said, certainly. But one thing is sure: his return will definitely bring chaos for Eleven and the gang in Stranger Things Season 5.
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Edited by Abhimanyu Sharma
