A social media post questioning Linda Hamilton’s contribution to the final season of Stranger Things has sparked renewed debate about her role in the series. The claim, shared on January 1, 2026, described Hamilton’s appearance as “the easiest money” she had ever made and labeled her character “useless.” Two days later, pop culture commentator Zack Peter weighed in with a blunt assessment of her screen time.
The discussion comes after months of anticipation surrounding Hamilton’s casting in Stranger Things and the eventual reveal of her character’s function in the show’s final arc. In Zack Peter’s opinion, Linda Hamilton’s character did not add much.
“All she did was walk around, grunt a little, and say, “Find the girl!””
More about Linda Hamilton’s role in Stranger Things Season 5
Linda Hamilton was first announced as a Season 5 cast member during Netflix’s Tudum event, with coverage published on March 5, 2025. At the time, Netflix confirmed her involvement in Stranger Things but did not disclose her role, emphasizing instead the mystery surrounding how she would fit into the final season’s mythology.
Linda Hamilton herself said she was both a fan and an actor joining the series, adding to expectations that her character would play a significant part.
“I don’t know how to be a fangirl and an actress at the same time. I’m gonna work on that”
Those details became clearer with Netflix Tudum’s episode breakdown published on January 2, 2026. Linda Hamilton portrayed Dr. Kay, a military scientist connected to efforts to control or exploit the Upside Down. In the finale, her role is referenced in discussions about preventing future experiments on Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, and others with supernatural abilities. While Dr. Kay does not dominate the screen, her presence helps frame the stakes of the final battle in Stranger Things and the decision to destroy the Upside Down entirely.
According to the Tudum explanation, Season 5 of the show emphasized that every character contributed in some way, even if briefly, to the story’s resolution. Linda Hamilton’s character served as part of the institutional threat the heroes sought to neutralize. For some viewers, that context may have justified her limited scenes; for others, it may have reinforced criticism that the role was underwritten.
The debate continues, but the official material by Netflix confirms that Linda Hamilton’s part, though restrained, was intentionally narrow rather than incidental.
The Duffer Brothers’ Netflix science fiction drama Stranger Things, which is set in a small American town in the 1980s, combines supernatural horror with a coming-of-age narrative. The show centers on a group of children from Hawkins, Indiana, whose lives are turned upside down by covert government experiments and a parallel dimension called the Upside Down, according to Netflix’s Tudum.
From its debut season in 2016, the show, which heavily drew from vintage pop culture influences, became an international sensation. All five seasons of the show are now available for streaming on Netflix.
Edited by Devangee
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