Linda Hamilton Has Joined “Stranger Things” Season Five

Spoilers ahead for season four, volume two of Stranger Things.

It’s official: Season five of Stranger Things is happening.

In February 2022, three months before season four premiered (and earned a billion hours of watch time), Netflix and series creators Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed that the sci-fi favorite would continue with a fifth season. The renewal announcement came with an open letter from the Duffers, which explained that the fifth season would also mark the end of the series.

“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,” the Duffer brothers wrote. “At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four but—as you’ll see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale.”

Here’s everything we know so far about the fifth and final season.

Season five will be the last we see of the Hawkins gang.

In their open letter, the Duffers said season five would wrap up the stories of everyone in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. But they also hinted that the Stranger Things universe could continue on later, with a possible spin-off or sequel.

“There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things: new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes,” the creators wrote. “But first, we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”

In May 2023, the Los Angeles Times reported that the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike had delayed production on season five.“We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work,” the Duffers posted on Twitter.

Linda Hamilton has joined the cast of season five.

Stranger Things has tapped yet another ’80s icon for the show’s final season. Last week, Netflix announced that Terminator star Linda Hamilton would join the season-five cast, dropping the news as part of its Tudum fan event. Further details on the actress’s role are under wraps for now.

The Duffers say season five likely won’t have many new characters.

In an August 2022 interview with IndieWire, the Duffers opened up about developing the show’s characters, and revealed that they want to focus on the core characters in the final season.

“Whenever we introduce a new character, we want to make sure that they’re going to be an integral part of the narrative,” Ross said. “But every time we do that, we’re nervous, because you go, ‘We’ve got a great cast of characters here, and actors, and any moment we’re spending with a new character, we’re taking time away from one of the other actors.’ So we’re just very, very careful about who we’re introducing.”

“We’re doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for Season 5. We’re trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess,” Matt added.

The Duffers hoped for a shorter wait for season five.

With season four ending in a cliffhanger that tears through the barriers between the Upside Down and Hawkins, fans have wondered when we’ll get new episodes (and hope the answer is “as soon as possible”). Luckily, the Duffers themselves told Variety in May 2022 that they’d already pitched the season-five arc to Netflix and that the wait between seasons four and five should be much shorter than the three-year gap between seasons three and four.

“Don’t hold us to it, but the gap should be quite a bit shorter this time, due to the fact that we already have an initial outline, and we can’t imagine there will be another six-month forced hiatus,” they told the outlet.

Following the July 2022 release of volume two of season four, the brothers gave an update on the production timeline to Collider, revealing they were set to start writing season five after a short break. “We’re going to take a little vacation in July,” Ross said. “And then we’re going to come back. I know that the writers’ room is going to start in that first week of August.”

Will is a “big part and focus” of season five.

After taking a back seat to the love story between Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in season four—and even having his birthday forgotten—Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) will have a bigger role in the final season, per Collider. Matt Duffer told the outlet in July 2022 that season five will show Will coming into his own, and it sounds like we may finally see a conversation about his sexuality onscreen.

“Will’s going to be a big part and focus, is really all I can say of Season 5, in his journey. We’re starting to see his coming of age, really. Which has been challenging for a number of reasons, some of which are supernatural. But you’re starting to see him come into his own,” Matt said.

Ross Duffer added,“[It’s] setting up us coming full circle back to Season 1. I think you’ll see that with a couple of the character arcs, not just with Will. But also with Steve and Nancy, and her relationship with Jonathan where things are not fully resolved. The characters have maybe made steps, like in the case of Will, but that journey isn’t over yet. All of that is going to play a huge role as we try to wrap this thing up next season.”

The Duffer brothers say season five may include a time jump.

In a June 2022 interview with TVLine, the showrunners revealed that they had outlined season five, saying the show was “pretty well mapped out.” They also said that they hadn’t set a start date for shooting and that they expected to tweak their outline based on what they’d learned shooting season four.

“We’ve learned a lot just working with all of our new actors and the ones that we’ve worked with for a long time over this year [making season four], so I’m sure it’ll change a little bit from that outline,” Matt said. “The ending is the hard thing. That’s obviously the stressful thing. We really want to stick the landing.”

Ross added that the show will likely have to include some sort of time jump, as the age gap between the show’s main actors and their characters gets wider.

“I’m sure we will do a time jump,” he told the outlet. “Ideally, we’d have shot [seasons four and five] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that. So these are all discussions we’re going to have with our writers when we start the room up.”

Vecna will likely be the main villain of season five.

In season four, Stranger Things introduces Vecna, the ultimate Big Bad of the show, who seems to be unbeatable. The season finale confirms that the monster—a.k.a. Dr. Brenner’s first test subject, a.k.a. Henry Creel—has been at the center of the Upside Down monsters’ hive mind ever since season one, slowly gaining a foothold in Hawkins until he could set off the plan that tore down some of the barriers between the Upside Down and the regular world.

The two episodes of volume two of season four depict a showdown between Vecna and the kids that leave the villain severely injured, but not dead. The audience never sees his body, and Will Byers feels the familiar warning tingle on the back of his neck at the end of the season, signaling further danger. So season five will likely present the final showdown between Eleven and Vecna to determine the fate of the world.

In June 2022, Vecna actor Jamie Campbell Bower hinted that he would be part of season five. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he offered up a cryptic hint: “Let me put it this way: I know about season five. Take from that what you will.”

Millie Bobby Brown wants Eleven to have a “good ending.”

In an interview with Glamour in August 2020, actress Millie Bobby Brown discussed her thoughts about how Stranger Things might end, especially when it comes to her character, Eleven. Brown joked, “I always say to the Duffers, ‘Can she just not smile like in one take?’ I would love her story to be rounded off by like a good ending. I trust the Duffer brothers so much that it’s going to be beautiful and I’m going to love it no matter what it is.”

In particular, Brown is hopeful about Eleven’s relationship with Mike Wheeler and the amazing powers she lost at the end of season three. “But I’d love for her to get her powers back because she is a hero, she is like a super woman in a way,” Brown said. “And she loves Mike—I want them to get married. That’s what I need. I need a wedding scene for Stranger Things, period.”

Brown joked, “Eleven in a wedding dress and her going, ‘Sorry, my nose is bleeding. It’s a white dress.’ Doesn't it just seem like it would fit.”

David Harbour says Hopper will be in season five.

In an interview with Gold Derby in June 2020, actor David Harbour, who plays Hawkins police chief Jim Hopper, appeared to let it slip that Stranger Things would continue beyond season four. He said, “I will tell you in Season 4 and in Season 5, if we’re ever able to film again, there is a lot to be revealed around the complexities of [Hopper’s] story, which is really rich, and I’m really excited for you to see.”

He also teased, “Because we know the ending, you’ll be able to go back and watch it and see, you know, what we were planting in Season 3 that paid off in Season 4 and Season 5.”

Watch this space for updates.

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