Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Children of the Corn) is set to be the newest addition to the otherworldly city of Hawkins, Indiana! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hamilton has been cast for an unknown role in the fifth and last season of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, yet she says she will not be watching the season when it drops, despite being a big fan.
Hamilton recently sat down with Us Weekly! to promote Resident Evil. When Stranger Things came up in the conversation, Hamilton stated that she was always a massive fan of the show, and now that she will be in the series, the show won’t feel the same for her.
“I’ve watched every season with relish. I just love it. So it’s kind of, like, imposter syndrome where I don’t [feel that I] fit in there. That’s a whole world set in the ’80s,” said Hamilton via The Hollywood Reporter.
Hamilton continued, saying, “When you really buy into something, you don’t see yourself in it. So I think, in a way, it kind of ruined the show for me. I never watch [a project] once I’m in something. It would just completely take me out of the reality of it to see myself in there. So, I won’t be watching [season five].”
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Hamilton is only one of the few new stars to be on board for Stranger Things’ last run. Her role in the series is unknown to a certain extent for herself and has not been disclosed to the public.
Hamilton stated that she spoke to co-creators Matt (Hidden, Eater) and Ross (Road To Moloch, Vessel) Duffer after the big news, and they gave her the “shape of the character but not of the story,” as per The Hollywood Reporter.
“They have to be very careful with their story. So I still don’t know how it ends. And it takes a lot of discipline to not know where it’s going to go. But that’s to protect it from all of the people that want to know.” said Hamilton via The Hollywood Reporter.
Be that as it may, Hamilton has shared that she thoroughly enjoys her time on the show, which began filming on Jan 8th. The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Hamilton’s friends will message her while she is on set to check her whereabouts, but she refrains from sharing her location in case it reveals plot details. Additionally, Hamilton holds a lot of love and respect for the Duffer brothers and would never want to compromise that.
“I do get to be there for table reads and watch it unfold and be part of it. I’m thrilled to be part of it. But I just never, ever saw that one coming. It is different when you’re a fan of the show to sort of go, ‘Well, how do I fit?’ But we’re working on it. It’s good. It’s really good,” said Hamilton via The Hollywood Reporter.
The fifth season of Stranger Things is set to be continued sometime after season four’s finale where, *spoiler alert* Hawkins splits into four after Vecna, played by Jamie Campbell Bower (Camelot, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), curse goes through even though Max, played by Sadie Sink (The Whale, Dear Zoe), is still alive.
Yet, the specific timeline of when the fifth season will be picked up from the shocking season four is still unknown. Ross Duffer sat down with TVLine in June of 2022 to say that he’s “sure” there will be a time jump between seasons four and five since most of the Stranger Things stars came into the show as kids and are now in their late teens and even early 20s.
“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,” said Duffer to TVLine and via The Hollywood Reporter.