This November, Netflix's popular series Stranger Things will return for its fifth and final season after a lengthy wait (the last season debuted in 2022). Netflix recently announced the premiere dates, revealing that the fifth season will be split into three volumes released during major holidays. Seeing as we're now about five months away from the show's return, some of its stars are beginning to tease what fans can expect from our final visit to Hawkins, Indiana.
Sarah Connor herself, Linda Hamilton, was previously announced to be one of the very few new cast members joining season 5. She recently chatted with ComingSoon.net about her experience filming the sci-fi horror series.
Unfortunately, Hamilton was unable to provide any juicy plot details, but she did share some interesting tidbits about the production. Most notably, filming for the eight-episode season took an entire year. The actress compares this to working on Terminator, a massive blockbuster that only shot for six months, and even that is something that "hardly anybody" does anymore.
According to Hamilton, they shot all of her character's "big scenes" within her first week on set. She got a little shock upon receiving the scripts and schedule and realizing how intense things were going to get right from the start. "I looked at what they were on the schedule, and I was like, 'No way are we doing that. I haven’t even spoken words from the character yet,'" she said.
Stranger Things season 5 is expected to be just as long—if not longer—than the show's fourth season, which was already a substantial season with episodes reaching feature length. The fourth season finale alone ran for 2 hours and 19 minutes. Hamilton was surprised to learn that basically every day they were shooting entailed "entire stunts, special effects, big acting, lots of character stuff."
Linda Hamilton's character name may have been leaked
Little is known about Hamilton's character, though her name might have been leaked last year. Screen Rant reports that she's playing someone named "Dr. Kay," and credits Deadline as the source, though the linked Deadline article doesn't have that name written anywhere. Netflix has not confirmed Hamilton's character. For now, "Dr. Kay" is still just a rumor.
If Hamilton is indeed playing a doctor on the show and she's going to be involved in a lot of big action sequences, we can theorize a little about her role. It appears that she will have a significant part to play in the final episodes and could be a new antagonist like Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), or maybe she'll be more benevolent, akin to Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser).
At the time, Hamilton said Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer only revealed "the shape of the character," but not any significant details about the story itself.
As mentioned above, Hamilton is one of the only new cast members to join for the final season, as the Duffer Brothers wanted to focus on the show's original characters and a lot of callbacks to season 1. The fact that Hamilton landed a sizable role indicates that she will be integral to the story.
Apart from her role in the highly-anticipated final season of Stranger Things, Hamilton can also be seen starring on Syfy's sci-fi comedy series Resident Alien where she plays General Eleanor McCallister.
Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Netflix on November 26, followed by additional episodes on December 25 and the series finale on December 31.
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