Terminator vet Linda Hamilton has confirmed that she was actually considering retirement before she got the call to join Stranger Things Season 5. In the final season of the hit Netflix series, Hamilton is set to play the role of Dr. Kay, who is expected to replace Matthew Modine’s Dr. Martin Brenner after the antagonist died towards the end of Season 4.
Why did Linda Hamilton consider retiring before joining Stranger Things Season 5?
During a recent interview with Variety, Hamilton admitted that Stranger Things Season 5 prevented her retirement from acting. She shared that her “terrible hip” was the main reason why she considered retirement, since she doesn’t want to star in another project if she couldn’t give her best.
“I had started to talk to my agent, actually, right before this about retirement,” Hamilton said. “I was having a terrible hip issue for a few years, and I was like, ‘I can’t guarantee that I’m gonna be at my best. And if I can’t do that, then I don’t want to be in front of [the] camera.”
Months after talking with her agent about her potential retirement, she suddenly received an offer to star in the final season of Stranger Things. This led her to meet series creators Matt and Ross Duffer through a Zoom meeting,
She continued, “So after that phone call with my agent, cut to two months later, that was the last time we spoke: ‘I’m retiring.’ And then they called about Stranger Things and said, ‘Is Linda available from June to June?’ And [my agent] went, ‘Yes!’ He didn’t even check with me, he just went ‘Yes!’ So, and then there was the Zoom meeting with the Duffer brothers, who could not have been kinder.”
Stranger Things Season 5 stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Joe Keery, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Cara Buono, and Brett Gelman. It will also feature the return of Season 4 cast members Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna/One/Henry Creel and Amybeth McNulty as Vickie. Joining them are new cast members, Terminator vet Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay, Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.
The fifth and final season will be released on Netflix across three premiere dates. Volume 1 debuts on November 26, with four episodes, while Volume 2 will have three episodes on Christmas. It will then be followed by the series finale premiere on New Year’s Eve. Each volume releases at 8:00 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
(Source: Variety)
