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Netflix's Stranger Things has added a new cast member to its mix. At the recent Tudum fan event, Terminator star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that Linda Hamilton, his co-star from the franchise, will be joining the cast of the show in its fifth and final season.
Hamilton is the latest big name to join the critically acclaimed supernatural sci-fi horror franchise, which includes several big names such as Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine from Full Metal Jacket and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Although details about Linda Hamilton's role in Stranger Things are unknown, the Terminator actress revealed at the Tudum event that she was a big fan of the series. Moreover, she made it known to the attendees that she had found it hard to be a fan as well as an actress in the upcoming season.
Nonetheless, Hamilton's inclusion in the show is no doubt an excitement for both pop-culture enthusiasts and Terminator fans, who are anticipating the talent that she will bring to the table.
Stranger Things season 5: Everything we know so far
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things currently does not have a release date. The show creators, Duffer Brothers, have confirmed that production is currently halted due to the ongoing Writer's Strike by the Writer's Guild of America.
As for the plot of the final season, nothing has been announced as of yet. However, going by the ending of the fourth season, it will see the Hawkins kids -Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Eleven and Max - team up with Hopper, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, Erica, Joyce, and the rest of their allies in a final battle against the creatures of the Upside Down dimension.
Additionally, the title of the first episode was revealed by the Duffer Brothers on the show's official Twitter page, which was called "Chapter 1: The Crawl."
The Hawkins gang will also likely contend with Eleven's archnemesis, Vecna, who was seemingly defeated at the end of Stranger Things' fourth season. However, the actor for the character, Jamie Campbell Bower, said in an interview with NME how the villainous individual was rebuilding himself and was planning his revenge.
"I don’t think he’s slunk off licking his wounds in misery. He’s rebuilding, and he’s out for blood.” He could stronger than ever in season 5," he said.
Fans of Stranger Things can also expect another plot point to be addressed in the upcoming season, which is Will coming out as gay. This was evident by how the fourth season dropped hints of Will having feelings for Mike as he was always saddened and jealous whenever the latter often spoke of Eleven. Will's actor, Noah Schnapp, even teased this in a recent interview with Variety.
Aside from Will's s*xual orientation, Schnapp also teased in the Variety interview that the upcoming final season would further explore the connection he had established with the Mind Flayer monster from the Upside Down in the first season.
Additionally, Matt Duffer, one of the Duffer Brothers, had earlier confirmed in an appearance on the Happy, Sad & Confused podcast that the episodes of the final season of Stranger Things, except for the finale, will not be over one or two hours long unlike the first four seasons.
"The only reason we don’t expect to be as long is, this season [season 4], if you look at it, it’s almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery. You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they’re struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve’s trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5]," he revealed.
Matt concluded by stating that the series finale of Stranger Things would be a 2.5 hour episode.
As for the cast of the upcoming final season of Stranger Things, expect the following actors to reprise their roles:
- Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
- David Harbour as Jim Hopper
- Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
- Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
- Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
- Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
- Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven/"El"
- Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield
- Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
- Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
- Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
- Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley
- Priah Fergusson as Erica Sinclair
- Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman
- Jamie Bower as Henry Creel/One/Vecna
- Linda Hamilton in an undisclosed role
The first four seasons of Stranger Things are currently streaming on Netflix.
