‘Stranger Things’ Actor Jennifer Marshall Reacts to Season 5 Absence: “I Was Surprised”

Stranger Things actress Jennifer Marshall has weighed in on not being invited to reprise her character, Susan Hargrove, in the fifth and final season, which has dominated entertainment conversations ever since it premiered on Netflix over the Christmas period. Last spotted in the ninth episode of Season 4, Susan is the mother of Max Mayfield, Sadie Sink’s teenage character. Despite her daughter spending the majority of Season 5 in a coma, Susan was AWOL.

Addressing her alter-ego’s absence from the action, Marshall, who TV watchers will also recognize from HBO’s Sugar and Prime Video’s The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, acknowledged that her skin cancer diagnosis may have played a part in her no-show. She wrote on Instagram this week:

“I had cancer, I get it. But I was in remission during the shooting of Season 5. Shooting would have helped me obtain my health insurance through the union. Maybe they had too many characters, idk but obv Susan Hargrove is THE WORST MOTHER EVER LMAO. #strangerthings #strangerthings5 #cancer #cancersucks #butwhy.”

Cue something of a media storm, with multiple outlets insinuating that Marshall was blasting the makers of Stranger Things and looking for a fight. “I just made the reel as a funny thing and it blew up,” she told Variety in response. “I hold no ill will toward anyone and just wish things would have gone a different way. I was surprised to not be called back but cannot confirm why that decision was made. Regardless, I am grateful for the opportunity to be in the previous seasons.”

‘Stranger Things’ Sequel Series Would Be “Gross Cash Grab” Says Matt Duffer

David Harbour’s Jim Hopper in Stranger Things season 5

Netflix

In other news concerning the terrifying universe created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, the idea of a future sequel series has been well and truly squashed. During the recent interview, Matt Duffer pondered: “I mean, I guess a sequel could be about a midlife crisis. That just sounds really uninteresting! (Laughs.) Grandpa Hopper? I don’t know how that would read as anything but a gross cash grab to me.”

This sentiment was further linked to the fact that the very last episode sees Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard) figuratively shoving the audience out of the Stranger Things world. “Mike’s closing the basement door. We’re closing the door on the story,” added Matt Duffer. “That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘This is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce and Hopper.’

“So, no, there’s no plan or intention to tell the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”

There could still be one final twist in the Upside Down saga, though, with some disappointed fans speculating that a secret episode is due to drop on the streamer on Monday, January 12 (which they believe will fix all the complaints they had about the finale). To completely lose yourself in the #conformitygate theory, make sure to check out this handy breakdown.