Stranger Things Creator Has Cryptic Call Sheet Tease for Season 5

12/13/2023 04:50 pm EST

Stranger Things Season 5 is headed into production soon – but one cast member won't be making a return, based on the casting call sheet. 

Stranger Things co-creator Ross Duffer shared an image on his Instagram Story, with a caption that reads "See you after the holidays". The casting sheet has a list of the primary characters from Stranger Things that will be returning in season 5 – with the noticeable detail of one name being crossed out with a lot of pen ink. 

Which Stranger Things Cast Member Isn't Returning For Season 5? 

The list of characters on the Stranger Things Season 5 call sheet includes: 

• Joyce Byers
• Jim Hopper
• Mike Wheeler 
• Nancy Wheeler
• Jonathan Byers
• Eleven
• Lucas Sinclair
• Dustin Henderson
• Will Byers
• Karen Wheeler
• Steve Harrington
• Robin Buckley
• Murray Bauman

The two most notable omissions from the call sheet are Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) and Matthew Modine's Martin Brenner. Both characters met with dire fates in Stranger Things Season 4: Brenner was killed by a sniper during the military's raid of his lab facility, while Max sacrificed herself to help stop Vecna, ultimately ending up in a coma. 

The call sheet is, admittedly, for Stranger Things Season 5 "Chapter One", so this tease from Ross Duffer should be taken with an obvious grain of salt. There's plenty of room for Modine's Brenner to show up in the final season via flashback (as has been done before), as well as room for Max fo finally wake up from her coma and play a pivotal part in the back half of Season 5. 

"This season – it's like season one on steroids," Duffer recently told The Guardian. "It's the biggest it's ever been in terms of scale, but it has been really fun, because everyone's back together in Hawkins: the boys and Eleven interacting more in line with how it was in season one. And, yes, there may be spin-offs, but the story of Eleven and Dustin and Lucas and Hopper, their stories are done here."

"It has exceeded all our expectations. We're very excited to share that with the world," Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy added to TheWrap earlier this year. "We are raring to go — our cast, our crew. Everyone not only needs to get back to work because we have many hundreds of crew members who have not been able to make a living since the strikes began, but we will be shooting very shortly after the actor's strike ends."

Stranger Things Season 5 is in development. 

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