Sadie Sink addresses Max’s fate in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5

She’s running up that hill. 

Sadie Sink, 22, who stars as Max in “Stranger Things,” is opening up about the fifth and final season of the Netflix hit, which doesn’t yet have an announced premiere date. 

In Season 4 of “Stranger Things,” Max nearly dies. She survives but is left blind and in a coma. The sequence involves the ’80s Kate Bush hit “Running Up That Hill,” which caused the song to hit No. 1 on the charts 37 years after it came out.  

“They love having me run,” she told Variety about Season 5, implying that Max could wake up from her coma. (Or, Max could be running in another dimension, as she stays comatose in the “real” world).

“She’s going to play a part in the season,” series co-creator Matt Duffer told the outlet, adding that he didn’t want to reveal “how that’s possible” since Max is in a coma. 

“We did film a scene the other day with her that was just absolutely heartbreaking. I don’t know how she hits those notes,” he said. 

Set in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the ‘80s, “Stranger Things” follows a group of misfit friends, including Max, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Steve (Joe Keery), former police chief Hopper (David Harbour) and perpetually frazzled mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) as they deal with supernatural threats from an alternate dimension called “The Upside Down.” 

In Season 4, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) emerged as the ultimate villain they’ll have to defeat in Season 5. 

“I’ve been working all of last week, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I forgot how hard this show is,’” Sink said about filming the final season. 

“You’re a team player here. It’s not about me. It’s not about anyone. It’s about the show and what’s best for it.”

The actress shared that she was surprised at much the audience invested in Max’s fate in Season 4. 

“I really didn’t think people would care all that much about her journey,” she said.

“Still, I was kind of like, ‘That’s cool,’” she added, referring to all the Max videos on TikTok in 2022. 

“I think I’m definitely numb to a lot of things now, which is a good thing. I think it keeps you stable,” Sink said. “I had this wall up before. In my everyday life, I really suppress most emotions. Weirdly, when I’m acting, that’s when any anger or sadness that I have can just explode. That’s its moment.”

Sink, who was also in the 2022 movie “The Whale” (which Brendan Fraser won an Oscar for) and the Taylor Swift short film “All Too Well: The Short Film,” said that after “Stranger Things” is over,  “I don’t want to play a superhero or a princess. I just want to make sure everything that I’m doing is different than the last. I’m still young, and I’m still learning.”