Linda Hamilton Says Stranger Things Is 'Ruined' for Her Now That She's Been Cast In it

The 'Terminator' legend is just the latest 1980s icon to join the macabre Netflix series set in that decade as it gears up for its fifth and final season, with Linda Hamilton admitting even she doesn't know everything to come or how it will end.

The journey into the horrific underbelly of Hawkins, Indiana will soon be over, but superfan Linda Hamilton worries that Netflix's Stranger Things has been "ruined" for her. That's because the Terminator franchise icon was just cast in its fifth and final season.

She also said that she came into filming for this last chapter pretty blind when it came to the overarching story. She explained that The Duffer Brothers (Ross and Matt) gave her "the shape of the character but not of the story."

As for why she's not sure she'll even be able to tune into the final season, despite admitting she's "watched every season with relish," Hamilton said that seeing her own face in it will destroy the illusion.

"It's kind of, like, imposter syndrome where I don't fit in there," she told Us Weekly. "That's a whole world set in the '80s." Certainly, Hamilton is no stranger to the decade, with her breakout role coming in 1984 with the first Terminator film.

"When you really buy into something, you don't see yourself in it," Hamilton explained. "So I think, in a way, it kind of ruined the show for me."

It's not just Stranger Things, though, as Hamilton said she never watches a project once she's in it. "It would just completely take me out of the reality of it to see myself in there," she argued. "So, I won't be watching."

But will she really be able to resist tuning in to see how the story ends after sticking by it so loyally and enthusiastically across its first four seasons? She might have to just to find out how it ends, because apparently being in it wasn't even enough for that scoop.

"They have to be very careful with their story," Hamilton said. " I still don't know how it ends. 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."

Hamilton has completely bought into the secrecy of the filming, which began production on January 8. She said that she won't even tell friends where she is when they reach out for fear it will expose something.

She admitted that she never saw it as something that would be a fit for her, but she's certainly enjoying herself. As for the final season itself, she said, "It's good. It's really good."

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The biggest challenge for the Duffers and everyone involved in the show was the unexpected delays caused first by the Covid pandemic just as they were getting started with Season 4 and then the dual Hollywood strikes. With a cast of growing kids and a cliffhanger ending, they've had to make some tough decisions.

"I'm sure we will do a time jump," Ross Duffer told TVLine all the way back in 2022 as they were closing production on Season 4. "Ideally we'd have shot [Seasons 4 and 5] back to back, but there was just no feasible way to do that."

It's been eight years since the show first kicked off with a group of young teenagers in the lead. Now, the youngest of those, Noah Schnapp, is 19 with all of his OG co-stars 20 years or older. Even Priah Ferguson, who joined the show as Lucas' (Caleb McLaughlin) 10-year-old sister in Season 2, is 17 years old now.

They can play a little younger but adjustments will surely have to be made. However they play it out, the Duffers have teased there could be other well-known guest stars on the way as they wrap up their story for good ... at least, for now.

Stranger Things' fifth and final season is currently scheduled to premiere in 2025 -- when none of its main stars will be teens anymore!