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An incoming cast member on "Stranger Things" says the final season will take an entire year to film, likely ending hopes of an early 2025 release date.
Linda Hamilton described the production cycle to Business Insider in an interview last Wednesday.
She said the filming is due to take at least a year. That would mean the show would likely not be ready until the middle of 2025.
That timeline could come as a surprise — many expected to see season five launch in late 2024 or early 2025. The show's creators, the Duffer Brothers, promised a short wait after the last one.
The show doesn't have an official launch date for the new season, and Netflix didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The production was stalled for several months due to the Hollywood actors and writers strike last year.
The "Stranger Things" writers announced on May 6 they would pause production, and didn't return until September 27 when the Writers' Guild of America strike ended. Filming for season five just began in January 2024.
Hamilton, who joined the "Stranger Things" cast in June 2023, told Business Insider she had her first week on the hit show's set earlier in February.
"It's a year of shooting, so I couldn't be happier," she said. "Their season takes a year to shoot, which is just an unheard-of luxury of time. But the size of their day is also so beyond any scale that we're used to."
After filming, there would need to be a couple of months for post-production, to edit the footage and add visual effects. On that kind of timeline, it is hard to see how the fifth season — due to be the final one — could be ready before mid-2025.
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Hamilton's role has yet to be revealed publicly, but that hasn't stopped fans from theorizing who she will play. Some believe her character will be related to a pre-existing protagonist, such as an older version of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) or an older sister of Joyce (Winona Ryder). Others predicted she'd play a CIA operative.
Hamilton played coy when asked about the theories.
"All of it's true. I confirm everyone's theory is correct," Hamilton told Business Insider. "That's all I can share. They're all right!"
Hamilton last week told US Weekly that the Duffer Brothers had not yet given her the full script for season five.
"They gave me the shape of the character, but not of the story," she said. "So I still don't know how it ends."
Hamilton also told the publication that she was a big fan of the series but won't be watching the final season because of her involvement in the show.
"When you really buy into something, you don't see yourself in it. So I think in a way, it kind of ruined the show for me," she said.
"I never watch once I'm in something. It would just completely take me out of the reality of it to see myself in there," Hamilton added.
