Linda Hamilton has been a huge fan of “ Stranger Things ” since the show premiered on Netflix in 2016, but if it had been completely up to her, she may not be playing one of the main antagonists for the show’s fifth and final season. For one, she told her agent she was retiring. For another, she doesn’t watch her own work, so being on the show means she can’t watch it.

“There’s a part of me that would almost rather watch it than be in it,” she says. “So during our script readings, I am watching everything, because I’m never going to get to see it on the screen and to watch it unfold.”

Not much is known yet about Hamilton’s character, other than she’s a military scientist named Dr. Kay. When she spoke with Variety during production in July 2024 — part of the magazine’s Oct. 15 cover

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