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“Stranger Things” is gearing up for its fifth and final season (check out our recap here<\/a>\u00a0and read up on some game-changing theories<\/a>\u00a0before the new episodes debut), and the leadup has had all the glitz and glamor of premieres to make it especially starry. But one star had an especially surprising story to share about how she almost retired before she ultimately took the job in “Stranger Things.” Linda Hamilton, famous for starring in the “Terminator” series as Sarah Connor, has a role as Dr. Kay in Season 5 \u2014 but it almost didn’t happen.<\/p>\n “I had started to talk to my agent actually right before this about retirement,” Hamilton reminisced to Variety (via X<\/a>). “I was having a terrible hip issue for a few years and I was like, ‘I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be at my best.’ And if I can’t do that, then I don’t want to be in front of [the] camera.” But Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of “Stranger Things,” asked her through her agent if she would be on the show, and her agent immediately said yes. “He didn’t even check with me!” Hamilton said.<\/p>\n So Hamilton decided to put retirement on hold and she’s all the better for it. “I get to do work now the way that I always wanted to work, [in terms of] time,” she told People<\/a> in August 2025.\u00a0“I’m not raising children, and I’m not cheating them if I sit with my script all day long. And I have to say, I’m enjoying it so much.”<\/p>\n Read more: Actors You May Not Know Are Dead<\/a><\/p>\nWho is Linda Hamilton’s character, Dr. Kay?<\/h2>\n