Variety spoke to Barrie Gower, the head of the prosthetic makeup company BGFX who created the creature effects for Vecna, and there was a good reason BGFX was chosen for the gig. Gower won three Emmys for his work on “Game of Thrones,” including his work on the Night King. You can see the similarity in their features, though they’re completely different monsters.

In the interview, which goes deep into the actual process of creating the “Stranger Things” prosthetics and how Campbell Bower was a part of it all, we learn that the Duffer Brothers were fans of Gower’s “Game of Thrones” work. Gower said, “With season four, they were after a new, big iconic villain. They decided that they wanted their own version of the Night King, an iconic figure, and they thought ‘Well, why don’t we just contact the guys who made the Night King?'”