Even as Volume 2 of Season 5 drops, Stranger Things fans’ minds are running rampant with speculation and theories about many different aspects of the series.

Timed to the release of the new episodes, series creators The Duffer Brothers broke down how the Upside Down was created, where the A Wrinkle in Time references in Volume 2 come from, and what fans should be bracing themselves for as Stranger Things heads toward its finale on New Year’s Eve.

When Will Byers is first taken in Season 1, there’s long been speculation about whether it was Eleven or Vecna behind it. Can you finally confirm who actually kidnapped Will?

Matt Duffer: It was Vecna. Why do they think it was Eleven?

I believe the confusion came from when Eleven sees the picture of Will. When it shown, [some fans believe] it seems like she knows who he is. 

Matt Duffer: Yeah, yeah, yeah…OK. Well, she didn’t have anything to do with his kidnapping. She’s innocent, she’s innocent. When it comes to creating the Upside Down, more guilty. I’m glad we resolved this for you. 

There are a lot of A Wrinkle in Time references this season, especially in how Vecna operates. When you were shaping him, did you see Vecna as drawing from that same idea of a larger, cosmic force, almost in the image of that story’s big bad?

Ross Duffer: So, Vecna was from different references. That was those ’80s horror monsters, like, you know, Pennywise or Pinhead. Those were more of the references for Vecna. A Wrinkle in Time came about just because we had a new group of young children, and it was very convenient. These kids didn’t play D&D like our core characters, but we needed something that they could reference these big sci-fi concepts with one another.

I will say when it comes to A Wrinkle in Time or even D&D, we’re not pulling references from those in particular. We look for something that the kids can use to talk about effectively, talk about those concepts that we’ve come up with for the show.

Because the Upside Down is said to be created by exotic matter, it suggests something man-made rather than purely organic or supernatural. Are we meant to think that Vecna, the Mind Flayer, or some other force had a direct hand in creating it, or is that still an open mystery for how this world came to exist?

Matt Duffer: You’re going to learn more. I don’t want to say too much. Because, you see that moment, that brief moment when young Henry’s about to open that briefcase. We’ve really only seen half of that core memory. And what Henry’s connection is with The Abyss and with the Mind Flayer. So all of that is going to be revealed in the finale, so you’re gonna have to wait until New Year’s Eve to find out. 

The Stanger Things finale airs on New Year’s Eve.