Linda Hamilton Joins Hawkins Crew in Stranger Things Finale

Netflix has released an official, extended teaser for Season 5 of Stranger Things, the final chapter of the hit series that premiered back in 2016. We’ve gotten what we came for: a good look at what appears to be the biggest, baddest, and most important battle of them all, when Hawkins’ old and new guard must come together to take on the Upside Down in its most overwhelming invasion yet.

The sequence is expertly paced, almost like a pre-release trailer. We get a taste of the darkness early on, as glimpses of the Upside Down slowly intrude further into Hawkins, and we see eyes glowing in the dark and demodogs loitering in an empty hallway. There are some action sequences, including a part with a flamethrower. Linda Hamilton shows up at one point fully armed and battle-ready, ready to jump into the fray alongside the usual Hawkins suspects.

In the season finale of Season 4, Vecna (the source of all the horror) ripped open a massive gate, allowing the Upside Down to ooze into Hawkins in its most total manifestation yet. In the teaser, it’s clear Season 5 will begin by making a big temporal jump, setting things in the fall of 1987 (which, not incidentally, is the third anniversary of Will Byers’ disappearance and the night the whole series kicked off back in Season 1).

There will be a total of 8 episodes in Stranger Things Season 5, but this isn’t a number to be split over multiple weekends. Each of those episodes will be feature-length, effectively making Season 5 a whole season’s worth of Stranger Things movies.

In the synopsis released along with the season trailer, Netflix has put out a rather telling statement. Hawkins is changed forever with the Rifts open, but the heroes of Hawkins, old and new, are now more unified than ever in their one objective: to find and kill Vecna. But where is Vecna? No one knows where he is, and the series’ big bad doesn’t show any signs of surrendering either. With the U.S. government putting Hawkins under military quarantine and cracking down harder than ever on the search for Eleven, the new kid’s back in hiding. With the third anniversary of Will’s disappearance on the horizon, the evil just keeps mounting up. The teaser makes clear: this is it. The final battle is coming, and this time the enemy will be darker and deadlier than we’ve ever seen before. If there’s any hope, it will come from the full party, all of them together.

Main Cast and Recurring Characters Returning in Season 5

Amybeth McNulty (Vicki), Gabriella Pizzolo (Suzie, Dustin’s girlfriend), Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna), and many more recurring characters from Stranger Things past will all be back for the series finale. In addition to the main cast and some of their familiar friends, several key new faces will be joining the action as well.

Of those, Linda Hamilton’s character, Dr. Kay, is by far the most recognizable, with Hamilton (who we last saw on the big screen as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day) stepping in fully battle-ready as early as the season’s opening sequence. Others include: Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler; Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow; and Alex Breaux as Lt. Akers.

A few cool Easter eggs throughout the sequence are worth highlighting. In one scene, Lucas and some other characters are hiding from some demo-dogs in a way that’s hard not to compare to the classic velociraptor kitchen scene in Jurassic Park. In terms of making our skin crawl, it’s impossible to listen to Vecna chillingly utter “found you” one more time without wanting to go back to the character’s Season 4 debut to relive the creeping horror all over again.

On the more somber side of things, we see Eddie Munson’s gravestone vandalized in the season finale with the words “Burn in hell” — a bitterly painful reminder for both the characters and viewers that no matter Eddie’s sacrificial heroism in the climactic events of the season 4 finale, a lot of Hawkins’ population still view him as a villain, one who was rightfully punished for his sin. Eddie’s death in that last episode of Season 4, arguably the most devastating of Stranger Things since Bob Newby’s death in Season 2, will stick with the Hawkins gang and viewers for some time.

Release Date and Episode Split

The structure of the season’s release will be an interesting talking point. Netflix is going to be splitting the 8 episodes into 3 volumes for release. After much fan demand for less “season-long” binging, this feels like a move destined to frustrate a lot of viewers who want the freedom to take on the finale’s many anticipated hours in one go.

Season 5 is the Last Ride for Many

For fans who’ve been following Hawkins since Season 1, Season 5 is more than just the finale to a beloved Netflix series; it’s the end of a story that’s come to span many years, many generations of characters, and an absurd number of fan theories, memes, arguments, and everything in between. The teaser confirms it: This is it, the last ride.

It remains to be seen if every character we’ve come to love over the years will survive the events of Season 5. What’s certain is that on December 31, 2025, the Hawkins crew will have thrown everything they’ve got at the season’s final battle, at trying to make the world right again, at trying to end the nightmare, once and for all, together, one last time.