Noah Schnapp, one of the stars of the beloved Netflix hit Stranger Things, seemingly accidentally revealed two crucial spoilers during a recent episode of the Hot Ones YouTube show, which were promptly edited out.
Warning! Spoilers (we think!) for Stranger Things Season 5 follow:
Schnapp — alongside costars Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin — appeared on an episode of Hot Ones Versus (the version of the iconic interview series that doesn’t feature host Sean Evans), where he dropped a couple bombs, namely that Vecna is controlled, or, as he put it, “is run” by the Mind Flayer, while recapping the entire series in just 30 seconds.
Trying desperately to condense the events of each Stranger Things season in half a minute, Schnapp also let spill that in Season 2, his character, Will, built the tunnels under Hawkins after he was kidnapped and possessed by Vecna in Season 1, something the show has yet to confirm.
As for the Vecna reveal, there is a little leeway here for Schnapp’s transgression. Technically, the notion that Vecna has been controlled by the Mind Flayer was first presented in the Broadway play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. In the theatrical exploration of the show, it is suggested that the Mind Flayer gave Henry Creel (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) his powers, which in turn led him to become Vecna. So if you’ve seen the play, you’d have at least a baseline knowledge of that idea — but most fans have not and were otherwise dark about the connection until now.
Despite Hot Ones editing the video pretty quickly, fans latched onto the spoilers and grabbed clips of the video before it was removed, which are now all over social media and Reddit.
said will built the tunnels and that vecna is run by the mindflayer… these are absolutely spoilers that accidentally slipped through 😭 https://t.co/SmbfBxEzbZ pic.twitter.com/PvpPDcchYx
— 🐰 (@c_tviz) December 2, 2025
“They Barbara Streisand-ed the Hot Ones video,” one fan wrote on the Stranger Things subreddit, to which another user replied, “Lol, that’s sorta funny considering they used a Barbara Streisand song about ‘memories’ in the show.”
“THEY CUT IT OUT I CAN’T BREATHE,” another person wrote on Twitter/X, while another fan remarked about the faces Wolfhard and McLaughlin make during the interview, suggesting that they realized Schnapp was airing out spoilers. “I didn’t notice Finn and Caleb’s faces, omg u might be right,” they wrote in response to a fan who shared the clip. “wow, that’s not subtle at all…” one tweet read. “someone’s getting the wrath of the internet.”
Of course, Schnapp may have simply got all this wrong, and his version of the events of the series may not be entirely accurate. But the fact his “spoilers” were edited out of the show does suggest Netflix isn’t happy with them being out there.
Needless to say, we’ll see how this all shakes down in the next four episodes of Stranger Things, which will continue the three-drop release strategy. The first four episodes of Season 5 were released on Netflix for Thanksgiving and the next four will arrive on Christmas. The final episode of the series will drop both on the streamer and in theaters nationwide on New Year’s Eve.
Stranger Things Season 5 release dates:
- VOL 1 – November 26, 5pm PT
- VOL 2 – Christmas, 5pm PT
- THE FINALE – New Year’s Eve, 5pm PT
We’ve got plenty more on Stranger Things, including Ross Duffer’s call to arms for fans to turn off “garbage” TV settings before watching Season 5. And be sure to check out our Stranger Things: Season 5, Vol. 1 spoiler review to find out what we think of how the show is going.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
