'Stranger Things' Star Confirms She Will Boycott Final Season

One of Stranger Things newest stars has boycotted the final season, even after watching the first four as a massive fan.

If you are a fan of Stranger Things, you likely know that the fifth and final season is being filmed, and the Duffer brothers show will soon come to an end.

Stranger Things is a gripping sci-fi horror series set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.

The story revolves around a group of kids—Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown)—who become entangled in supernatural mysteries, government conspiracies, and alternate dimensions. When one of their friends, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), mysteriously disappears, they embark on a quest to find him, uncovering a secret government laboratory conducting experiments on a young girl with telekinetic abilities named Eleven. As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the town, they encounter terrifying creatures from the “Upside Down,” a parallel dimension.

The main cast also includes Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, David Harbour as Chief Jim Hopper, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Joe Keery as Steve Harrington, and Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield, among others.

Stranger Things has received widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards and accolades. It has won several Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, and has been nominated for numerous others. The show has also been recognized with awards from the Screen Actors Guild, Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and Writers Guild of America Awards, and more.

Additionally, it has garnered a dedicated fan base and has become a cultural phenomenon, known for its nostalgic references to 1980s pop culture and its compelling storytelling propelling the possibilities for spin-offs, and at the moment, a prequel show on London’s West End called Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

At the moment, we do not know much on how the final season will end, but we do know that it is currently filming. As we have shared, the Duffer brothers, “plan to shorten the final season’s episodes compared to its predecessor, promising a unique and impactful storyline. Matt Duffer hints at a transformative journey for Dustin, impacted by Eddie’s death, and describes the upcoming season as “like season one on steroids,” with the characters immediately pursuing Vecna and unraveling more revelations.

“It’s going to be unlike any other season,” Matt Duffer said. “We’re starting season 5 and things are already going. In the way Max was impacted by [season] three and how that impacted her narrative in four, Dustin has been impacted a lot by the death of Eddie, so that’s going to impact his storyline in five. We’re going to see a side of him we’ve not seen before. It’s also going to be like season one on steroids.”

One thing we do know is that Terminator star Linda Hamilton will be joining the cast.

As a fan of the show, Hamilton said she felt out of place and joked about ruining the show for herself. Now, she will not be watching the final season.

“I’ve watched every season with relish. I just love it,” she told Us Weekly. “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.”

She continued, “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 5].”

Linda spoke out on what she knows regarding the final season.

“I Zoomed [creators] Ross and Matt Duffer, and they gave me the shape of the character, but not of the story. Because they have to be very careful with their story. So I still don’t know how it ends,” Hamilton said. “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.”

She did state that the final season is really good, and has been sworn to secrecy regarding what she knows so far.

The fifth season of Stranger Things is currently filming, which means it will likely not release in 2024, however, 2025 does seem like a promising year and timeline to end the series. 

What do you think of Linda Hamilton’s decision to boycott the viewing of Stranger Things season 5?