Stranger Things announce Terminator legend Linda Hamilton will join the cast
Stranger Things 5 will be the last in the series
Popular Netflix show Stranger Things have announced a Terminator legend will be joining the show for its fifth and final series. The show, which launched the careers of Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink and Noah Schapp, announced the exciting news over the weekend.
Taking to social media to reveal the news, the show's official accounts wrote: '🚨Breaking News From #TUDUM🚨 Linda Hamilton is joining the cast of Stranger Things 5!'
They also shared a short video of their chief action officer Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Netflix Tudum event, saying: "I'm excited that I can announce that my old friend, a fantastic actress, a badass, is joining the Netflix family, in one of my favourite shows, and I know you will love this show too. She sent a video, and I want you to watch this video.
"So enjoy your time and have a great, great weekend. OK? Bye Bye, see you all. Hasta la vista!"
The video then cuts to Linda Hamilton, who announces she will be joining the cast of Stranger Things 5, admitting: "I don't know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time, I'm going to have to work on that."
Fans of the show, and Linda, are super excited following the news and have left hundreds of messages on social media. One fan wrote: 'Ohhhh 💯🫡. Doesn’t matter who her character will be fantastic casting choice. #StrangerThings', with another saying: 'SO EXCITED! y’all have never dropped the ball on casting, this is perfect! can’t wait to learn more about her role! 👀🔥'.
Although neither Linda or Netflix have confirmed the role that she will be taking on, she will likely take on a strong role. As Arnold alluded to in his introduction she's a "badass", and her role in The Terminator franchise is iconic.
Linda is best-known for her role as Sarah Connor in The Terminator franchise, primarily starring in The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as some uncredited voice roles.
Meanwhile, although Arnold isn't appearing on Stranger Things, in his Netflix role as chief action officer, he is responsible for bringing action to the streaming platform.
Stranger Things 5 will be the last season in the Netflix series, where fans have been following the lives of Eleven, Will Byers, Max Mayfield, Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair, as they battle with the Upside Down. In the latest series they took on Vecna and his incredible powers.
According to Sadie Sink, who plays Max, the final season will be 'sad and scary', appearing on Today with Hoda and Jenna, she explained: "It's going to be awful. It's going to be horrible and these kids, this entire cast and crew, this is like family.
"I mean people say that all the time, but I genuinely mean it, and to think that we kind of have to say goodbye to that security and that we're not going to be seeing each other for another season... It's scary and sad, but I think it's exciting to kind of move on to the next chapter, I guess."
There's no word yet on when Stranger Things 5 will be released, but Stranger Things season 1 - 4 are available to stream now on Netflix.
Take a look through our recap of Stranger Things season 1 - 4:
Stranger Things season 1
At the beginning of season one, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and his friends Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) are all playing Dungeons and Dragons in Mike's basement.
However, after saying "goodbye" that fateful night, Will goes missing, and the boys head on a mission to find their friend.
Stranger Things season 1
In season one, we also meet Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, who is one of the lead characters throughout all of the Stranger Things seasons. She first appears in season one where as a pre-teen, the young girl escapes from Hawkins Laboratory, later attempting to steal food from a local restaurant.
Lucas, Mike and Dustin encounter and befriend Eleven as she tries to escape from Hawkins lab agents, who have disguised themselves as social services and turned up at the restaurant.
Mike hides Eleven in his basement away from his parents, and those who might be searching for her.
Stranger Things season 1
Much of season one follows Will's mum, Joyce Byers, on the search for her son. One of the most iconic scenes is when Joyce (Winona Ryder) begins to communicate with Will through Christmas lights. After a body is found in the lake, Joyce begins to doubt herself, but is soon back on track on the hunt for her son when she realises the body is a fake.
Stranger Things season 1
The boys all attended Will's funeral believing he's dead and afterwards they questioned Mr Clarke, the science teacher, about alternative dimensions.
El, who has psychokinetic and telepathic abilities manages to locate their friend, but it turns out he's trapped in the Upside Down - an alternate dimension which exists in parallel to our world. Eleven enters the Upside Down and confirms that Will is alive, but a monster (Demogorgon) from the Upside Down crosses over into their dimension.
Stranger Things season 1
Meanwhile Jim Hopper, the local Hawkins cop appears in the first season as an alcoholic, chain-smoker. Joyce calls on him to help when Will goes missing. It appears that Hopper and Joyce have some history, as they were at school together.
As season one progresses, Hopper finds out his house is being bugged, and realises that there is a conspiracy involving Hawkins Laboratory, so begins to take Joyce's claims about Will seriously.
We also find out through emotional flashbacks that Hopper had a daughter, called Sara, who died of cancer as a child.
Stranger Things season 1
In season one, Nancy Wheeler (Mike's older sister) goes with her best friend Barb to a party, but while she is inside with boyfriend Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), Barb goes missing and Nancy feels partly responsible.
She might have only been a series regular in one season of Stranger Things, but Barbara Holland, better known as Barb, became iconic. She became one of the first victims of the demogorgon when she disappeared into the Upside Down.
While trying to find Barb, Jonathan and Nancy discover the Upside Down.
Stranger Things season 1
Later in the series, Joyce gets back with her estranged husband Lonnie, much to her older son Jonathan's surprise, but not for long when he begins to tell Joyce to give up on trying to find Will. Lonnie is thrown out of the house and Joyce and Hopper meet to talk about what they've both experienced. The pair sneak into the lab and put on hazmat suits to enter the Upside Down.
Once in the alternate dimension, Joyce finds Will unconscious but alive, and manages to take him back to the real world. Everything seems to be OK at first, but Will soon starts to cough up some small slug-like creatures, similar to what Hopper saw in the Upside Down.
Stranger Things season 1
The series ends not knowing if Eleven survives after she appears to use all of her power to protect her friends from the Upside Down monster, and seemingly disappears.
At the end of the season, Hopper is seen walking into the woods with El's favourite food, Eggos, as he believes she's still alive out there somewhere.
Stranger Things season 2
After Will is saved from the Upside Down at the end of season one, the boys are reunited. Will, Lucas, Mike and Dustin dress up as ghostbusters to go trick or treating. Dustin and Lucas become obsessed with new girl Max, while Mike isn't so happy about a new girl joining their group, so he leaves them on Halloween night.
Stranger Things season 2
Meanwhile we discover El survived the Demogorgon, finding herself back in the Upside Down, however she escapes through a portal, back to the school, before she runs into the woods away from the government.
El finds Hopper and the pair move into a cabin hidden in the woods. For almost a year El is hidden inside the cabin for her safety, no one knows of her existence, not even her best friend Mike.
Stranger Things season 2
After getting frustrated being cooped up, El runs away to the school, where she finds Mike talking to new girl, Max. Mistakenly thinking that Max is flirting with Mike, she uses her abilities to trip her up before going back to the cabin and damaging it with her powers out of anger.
El then comes across some documents in the basement where she finds out her birth mother is alive. Deciding to try to find her, El leaves Hopper and the cabin behind. When she finds her mother, she realises that she's in a catatonic state, which has been induced by electroshock therapy, after she tried to save her daughter from Hawkins Laboratory.
Using her powers, El finds out that she has a 'sister', Eight. El sets out to find Eight, also known as Kali.
Stranger Things season 2
After spending some time with Kali and her friends, El realises that the people she cares about back in Hawkins are in danger and decides to return to them.
When she returns to the town, she's welcomed back by Hopper, Mike and her friends, as she saves them from a Demodog, before realising she needs to try to close the gate into the Upside Down at the lab.
Stranger Things season 2
Maxine 'Max' Mayfield and her stepbrother Billy Hargrove are introduced in season two of Stranger Things. The pair have moved to the area from California.
Max, played by Sadie Sink, is a tomboy and keen skateboarder. She is often at odds with her older step-brother, Billy, who is much older than Max. He's verbally abusive to his younger step-sister, a by-product of the abuse he received from his dad.
Stranger Things season 2
Steve and Nancy regularly visit Barb's parents, who think she has just gone missing, and hire a private investigator. Nancy, knowing that her best friend is dead, begins to think that she sees her at the school library.
Steve becomes part of the main cast in season two and starts to mellow. Steve and Dustin get to know each other better when Dustin makes a discovery of a new type of creature that he calls D'Artagnan, asking Steve for help with it.
Steve and Nancy's relationship becomes strained and the pair eventually split up, while Jonathan and Nancy get together.
Stranger Things season 2
Although Will and Jonathan aren't huge fans of their mum's new relationship, Joyce is now dating her high school sweetheart Bob Newby (Sean Astin). Joyce is of course loving having her youngest son back at home, but it's not all good news. Since returning from the Upside Down, Will has been having episodes where he finds himself back in the alternate dimension, in one such episode he finds himself possessed by a Mind Flayer.
After Will collapses, screaming in agony he's rushed to the lab to Dr Sam Owens who thinks the shadow monster has got to his brain. Mike soon realises that the monster is controlling his friend and persuades Joyce to sedate him while they move him.
Suspicions surround Will's doctor, and after Will continues to have these episodes Joyce says she won't take him back to the doctor.
Stranger Things season 2
In shocking scenes, we see Bob get attacked by a demogorgon while at the lab trying to bring Hopper back from the Upside Down – and he dies of his injuries. Devastated by her loss, and desperate to keep the rest of her loved ones safe, Joyce is determined to burn the Mind Flayer out of Will.
Meanwhile, Will sees Justin's new pet, which he recognises as something from the Upside Down. It turns out to be a Demodog.
Stranger Things season 2
At the end of season two, Hopper legally adopts Eleven and her name is changed to Jane Hopper. Getting a second chance at being a dad, he then agrees to let Eleven attend the school's Snow Ball where she and Mike dance and have their first kiss.
Stranger Things season 3
In season three Max and Lucas are dating, and Max's friendship with El grows. Meanwhile Eleven and Mike have now been dating for seven months and have been spending a lot of time around each other, but to Hopper's dismay.
Between season two and three, Dustin has been at science camp where he met a girl called Suzie, who he says is "hotter than Phoebe Cates." After returning home he tries to contact Suzie using a radio tower he has built, but struggles to make contact and his friends question if she really exists. Instead of contacting Suzie, Dustin instead picks up a coded Russian transmission.
Will is feeling like the odd one out as many of his friends are now in relationships. The after-effects of the Upside Down continue throughout the season, with Will often sensing when danger is near. We often see him respond to a shiver across the back of his neck.
Stranger Things season 3
In the third season, Steve and new girl, Robin, have jobs in Starcourt Mall, at Scoops Ahoy! When Dustin picks up the Russian radio transmission, he asks Steve for help translating it and with the help of Robin, they manage to work it out.
Steve and Robin end up being drugged after sneaking into a secret Russian base under the mall, but later in the series, Dustin and Erica (Lucas' younger sister) save them.
Stranger Things season 3
Hopper and Joyce discuss El's growing relationship with Mike, and Joyce suggests Hopper speaks to the young couple calmly, however things don't go to plan when Hopper decides to confront and threaten Mike! Hopper tells Mike he must stay away from El, otherwise he will end their relationship.
Mike finds himself lying to El about why he can't see her so much, so she decides to speak to Max for advice. Max suggests Mike wants to spend time playing games with his friends, so the girls go off shopping at the nearby mall.
Stranger Things season 3
While at the mall, the girls bump into Mike and the boys trying to buy El a present, but Mike lies and says they're getting something for his gran.
El ends their relationship and El and Max get a bus back to Hopper's where they have a sleepover and use El's telepathic powers to 'spy' on Mike and the boys.
Stranger Things season 3
While using her powers, El sees Billy, and it looks like he's kidnapped someone. It's later revealed that Billy has been taken over by a Mind Flayer, along with the person he has 'kidnapped', a lifeguard called Heather.
The Mind Flayer attacks Hopper's cabin, leaving El with part of the monster still lodged inside her leg. When she removes the piece left behind by the Mind Flayer she loses her powers, but the group manage to fight it.
Stranger Things season 3
Hopper asks Joyce out for a date, but she misses it, after getting chatting to the school science teacher about the fridge magnets losing their magnetism, resulting in Hopper getting very jealous.
Hopper and Joyce then decide to investigate the changes in magnetism at the Hawkins Lab, before Hopper is attacked by Grigori. After searching some properties in the town owned by Grigori's employer, Joyce and Hopper find Alexei, a Russian scientist, who they take hostage.
Alexei reveals the Russians are trying to open a gate to the Upside Down under the shopping mall using a machine which Hopper finds himself trapped inside, after fighting and killing Grigori.
Stranger Things season 3
Nancy and Jonathan get internships together at The Hawkins Post, but it's a tough job, especially for Nancy who has to deal with sexist colleagues.
One night Nancy is working late and takes a call from a person reporting rats eating their fertiliser. Nancy and and Jonathan pretend to be reporters and follow up the story. It later turns out that Mrs Driscoll, whose fertiliser it is, becomes possessed by a Main Flayer.
Stranger Things season 3
Nancy and Jonathan join the rest of the kids at Starcourt Mall in a big face-off between the Mind Flayer and the residents of Hawkins.
Billy sacrifices himself to protect Eleven, Mike and Max after the Mind Flayer traps the kids inside.
Stranger Things season 3
Meanwhile Joyce runs out of time and has to make the decision to destroy the machine, and close the gate on Hopper, who seemingly disintegrates.
The series ends with Hopper presumed dead by the explosion that closed the gate to the Upside Down, so El is taken in by Joyce and Will. As the family are preparing to leave Hawkins, Joyce gives El a letter written by Hopper which he had hoped to give her when they talked about her relationship with Mike.
Stranger Things season 4
Season 4 is set six months after the Battle of Starcourt which destroyed much of Hawkins. El moved to California with the Byers family, where she is struggling to cope with the loss of her dad (Hopper) and her special powers. She's also regularly bullied at school.
Friends Dustin, Mike and Lucas find it difficult to adjust to high school, as Lucas starts to hang out with the basketball team, Dustin and Mike have joined the Hellfire Club, where they become friends with new character Eddie.
Meanwhile, Steve and Robin now work in a video rental shop, and Nancy is the editor of the school newspaper.
Stranger Things season 4
At the beginning of the series, we also see Hopper in a prison camp in Kamchatka, after he was captured by Soviet soldiers. It's after Hopper's fate was left unknown at the end of Season 3.
With the help of a prison guard (Dmitri Antonov) he manages to bribe, Hopper has got word to Joyce and Murray that he is alive.
With a $40,000 ransom to be paid for Hopper, Joyce and Murray fly to Alaska where they meet a pilot called Yuri, who decides to drug them and turn them over for a bigger profit.
Stranger Things season 4
After Max and Lucas break up, she becomes withdrawn and spends time with the school counsellor. The teenager has now moved to a trailer park opposite Eddie, who is a student at the school.
Eddie was a new character introduced in season four, and is a rather complex and largely misunderstood outcast. He is a metalhead and Dungeon Master, leading the school's Hellfire Club (a Dungeons & Dragons-oriented society). Although initially presented as being a some-what enemy to the 'populars', Eddie is soon seen with head cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham - although this is due to her buying drugs off him, after she started experiencing horrifying visions.
Stranger Things season 4
Chrissy is possessed by, and falls victim to, Vecna inside Eddie's trailer, which quickly leads to him being falsely blamed for her murder. Eddie is forced into hiding and becomes a fugitive - not only evading the police, but also the angry civilians of Hawkins - including Chrissy's fired-up boyfriend, Jason. Despite this, Eddie forms an unexpected bond with Dustin, and the rest of the group, with Mike, Lucas and Dustin being members of the Hellfire Club.
Stranger Things season 4
When Max sees Eddie running away on the night of Chrissy's death, she tells Dustin, who wants to try and find him.
Max then begins to hear Vecna's voice calling her and sees the grandfather clock vision, which Chrissy also saw before her death. Worried that Vecna is going to kill her, Max decides to write letters to all of her friends, including one for her brother Billy, who died six months before.
Max is still troubled by the fact Billy sacrificed himself to protect her, Eleven, Mike and Max (in season three). While at Billy's graveside, Vecna possesses Max, who finds herself trapped inside his mind, until Lucas manages to get her to come round after he plays her favourite song 'Running Up That Hill'.
Stranger Things season 4
After Mike visits El in California, things rapidly take a turn for the worse when she's arrested for assaulting Angela (the bully). She is then taken by Sam Owens who explains events in Hawkins have caused her friends to be in danger.
Sam takes her to a secret facility in the desert, where she is reunited with Dr Martin Brenner (Papa), who promises to help her regain her powers.
El is fitted with an electric collar, before the secret facility is under attack, by Lt Colonel Jack Sullivan's forces, who believe El is responsible for the trouble in Hawkins, but thankfully Mike, Will, Jonathan and his friend Argyle manage to find El and the kids escape.
Stranger Things season 4
With the help of Argyle's pizza shop connections, they manage to find a huge freezer they can use as an isolation tank for El, so she can enter the Upside Down and try to help Max, who is fighting Vecna.
Through a series of flashbacks, El is reminded that she once fought her violent lab-mate 'Subject 001' during their time in captivity and banished him to the Upside Down. In doing this, she created who we now know as Vecna - after 001 transformed into a monster.
Stranger Things season 4
First introduced to us in the show as Peter, we realised at this point of season four that he, Subject 001, Henry Creel and Vecna are all in fact the same person, so let's break this complex character down chronologically.
Born as Henry Creel, he soon exhibits unusual abilities, which his father describes as 'sensitivity'. The Creel family move to Hawkins, and Henry soon discovers his powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Things turn sinister when Henry begins to use his powers to harm his family, resulting in him killing his mother and sister and hospitalising his father, Victor. Henry is placed in a coma, and Victor is falsely presumed to be the killer, imprisoned and subsequently driven further into madness.
Henry wakes up in the infamous Hawkins lab, and becomes Dr. Brenner's first test subject - becoming Subject 001. His powers begin to increase, however in doing so they also become less stable. When Eleven later enters the lab, they strike up a relationship as 001 'mentors' Eleven, however also manipulates her. In a showdown between him and Eleven, she ultimately sends him into the Upside Down and traps him there.
Peter Ballard is his assumed identity, who we meet as Eleven is brought back to the lab in season four. Eleven does not remember her previous encounters with him, and the season sees her revisit her memories as she pieces together the horrifying truth. Peter is gentle and kind, gaining the trust of both patients and staff in the lab, however is secretly developing his powers in order to get revenge on Dr. Brenner.
Stuck in the Upside Down, embracing his dark nature and powers, he becomes the sinister entity that is Vecna.
Stranger Things season 4
While Joyce is trying to find her way to Hopper, he is working on breaking out of the prison himself and briefly succeeds, before he is found and thrown back in the cell along with Dmitri, after Yuri's betrayal.
While flying to Russia, Joyce and Murray overcome Yuri resulting in the plane crash-landing in the Russian forest. After finding a town near the prison they get some supplies and break into the prison.
Once inside the prison they find themselves witnessing the prisoners - including Hopper - fighting a Demogorgon. Finally with a bit of help from Joyce and Murray, Hopper and Dmitri can escape and reunite.
Stranger Things season 4
Eddie is finally found by his friends hiding out near a lake, which appears to have a weird effect on compasses.
Steve decides to take a look at a gate which has opened up in the lake, but before he can get away he gets pulled into the Upside Down, so Nancy, Robin, and Eddie decide to follow him.
The two groups of friends finally meet back at Eddie's trailer after they manage to escape the Upside Down, but Nancy is left possessed by Vecna, when she finds out that he is Victor Creel's son Henry.
Stranger Things season 4
The friends work together to take on Vecna and come up with a cunning plan for Max to lure him, while the others attack him in the Upside Down.
Max, Lucas and Erica (Lucas' sister) go to Creel House, while Steve, Nancy and Robin enter the Upside Down, kitted out with weapons to attack Vecna.
Stranger Things season 4
Eddie becomes a vital member of the gang as they battle Vecna, with him even using his Dungeons & Dragons knowledge to strategise, in true Stranger Things fashion. As they head into the Upside Down to continue their battle, Eddie and Dustin are faced with a climactic showdown against the Demobats. In an attempt to distract Vecna, Eddie also plays an epic electric guitar solo, staging a performance of Metallica's 'Master of Puppets'. In a shocking scene, we see Eddie bravely sacrifice himself to protect his new friends and keep up the distraction of the Hive Mind. Killed by the Demobats, tragically Eddie also becomes a hero.
Overcome by the bats, Eddie sacrifices himself while El manages to find Max as Vecna attacks her, and revives her.
Stranger Things season 4
In a final scene, showing friends and family members search for their missing loved ones in what they are led to believe was an 'earthquake', we see the heartbreaking moment Dustin reveals to Eddie's uncle that he is gone, presenting him with his necklace, calling him a "hero".
At the end of the series, Joyce and Hopper re-enter the prison in order to destroy more Demogorgons and weaken Vecna in the process.
Finally, all of the friends are reunited in Hawkins, along with Hopper and Joyce, while Max is left comatose in hospital.
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