Credit: NetflixA new casting call has confirmed that one Stranger Things character has been recast for the upcoming fifth season of Netflix’s global smash-hit show.
By the time Stranger Things–one of Netflix’s tentpole shows and former holder of the most-watched English-language series before Wednesday came along–drops its fifth and final season, it will have been over three years since the epic conclusion to its record-breaking fourth season.
In the two-part Season 4, Stranger Things explored the traumatic past of Henry Creel, the young boy who eventually became One and later Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). The fourth season also saw Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven come into her powers while taking on the evil foe.
Stranger Things Season 5, then, is set to be an epic conclusion to one of the most beloved TV shows of all time. Season 5 will commence with “Chapter 1: The Crawl,” written and directed by the show’s creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, AKA The Duffer Brothers.
Marketed as Stranger Things 5, the upcoming season will see Bobby Brown and Campbell Bower return as Eleven and Vecna, and the pair will be joined by a slew of familiar faces.
Winona Ryder and David Harbour will return as Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper, respectively, as will Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, Noah Schnapp as Will Byers, and Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield.
Joe Keery (Steve Harrington), Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), Maya Hawke (Robin Buckley), Brett Gelman (Murray Bauman), Priah Ferguson (Erica Sinclair), and Cara Buono (Karen Wheeler) round out the Stranger Things Season 5 cast.
Joining the cast for this season will be Hollywood action movie legend Linda Hamilton. While it was initially theorized that Hamilton, known for her role as Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise, would portray an older version of Eleven, it has since been reported that she will play a doctor role in the TV show.
It has now been confirmed another character will be returning to Hawkins, but the creators will be recasting the role.
“Today, we at Knight Edge Media have learned a casting call has gone out for the role of Sara, the daughter of Hopper previously seen in season 1 of Stranger Things,” Knight Edge Media reports. “The character had already passed away by the time we meet Hopper in the first season. However, the casting call is looking for a child actress who looks similar to the original actress Elle Graham.”
The casting call for Sara Hopper is as follows:
[ SARA ] – Character is portrayed as 5 years old, female, white, blonde and blue/grey eyes. Sara is Hopper’s daughter seen in flashbacks. MUST MATCH TO SEASON 1 CAST MEMBER ELLE GRAHAM…CO-STAR
Sara Hopper originally appeared as Jim Hopper’s daughter in the first season of Stranger Things through flashback, where it was revealed that she died of cancer at a young age. The loss of Sara can be attributed to Hopper taking Eleven, who later became known as Jane Hopper, under his wing when she arrived in Hawkins.
Her reappearance in Season 5 suggests that audiences will be taken back in time, likely through flashbacks, once again. Either way this casting call presents an updated plot element not previously known.
The production of Stranger Things became significantly delayed following the consecutive Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild of America/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes in 2023.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Fans Given Early Access To Official Season 5 Teaser
Stranger Things 5 will consist of eight episodes that Robin actress Maya Hawke told Podrushed were “basically eight movies.” Earlier this month, Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) told People that shooting for the fifth season had almost finished.
According to David Harbour (Jim Hopper), the table reading for the final episode was incredibly emotional for the cast. “The end of this episode when we were reading it — just us reading it — about halfway through, people started crying,” Harbour explained. “Then about the last 20 minutes, it was just uncontrollably crying, waves of different people.”
The final episode of Stranger Things will mark a momentous occasion for the show that began in 2016. Its legacy and popularity will cement the Netflix show in the upper echelons of the pop culture canon and make it a cornerstone of streaming entertainment.
Stranger Things Season 5 is expected to be released sometime in 2025. For those needing an injection of the Upside Down before then, the prequel production, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, is currently playing in London’s West End at the Phoenix Theatre and will open in Broadway’s Marquis Theatre in Spring 2025.
Related: ‘Stranger Things’ Season 6 Now Trending in the Midst of New Filming
While little is known about Stranger Things 5‘s plot, Dustin Henderson actor Gaten Matarazzo told The Direct that it has more of what fans love about the show.
“I think it’s the same, like, vibe we know and love about this gang and getting on their adventures and, of course, the ultimate goal of stopping all this and preventing the Upside Down from infiltrating, but in the context of some pretty serious blows to the group,” the actor said.
It seems that the fifth season of one of the world’s most popular shows will cause heartbreak all around.
How do you feel about the upcoming Stranger Things Season 5? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!