Why Sadie Sink Is Hopeful Max Will Return In Stranger Things Season 5

Spoilers ahead for Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 2. While Sadie Sink is ready to keep running up that hill as Max Mayfield on Stranger Things, the actor has no idea what will actually happen. When viewers left Max in the Season 4 finale, the Hawkins teen was still in a coma after falling victim to Vecna, only to have Eleven miraculously resurrect her. Max is technically still alive, but El’s inability to telepathically locate her in the psychic void certainly leaves the character’s fate still in the air. Though the Duffer Brothers know how Stranger Things ends — and are currently writing Season 5 — they haven’t given Sink much insight on whether Max really lives or dies.

“They’ve been very secretive about Season 5 in general,” she recently explained to Deadline, adding that they “did have a conversation” about Max’s fate before shooting the Season 4 finale. “In the script it literally says that Max dies. So they called me beforehand and were like, ‘just warning you, this is in there, so you’re not like truly shocked.’ I have no idea what’s coming in five and what that looks like. Max’s storyline is very up in the air ... Who knows where she is and what state she’s in.”

Like viewers, Sink was “even more eager to find out” what will happen in Season 5 after recently watching the finale for the first time. She also pointed out Will mentioning that “Vecna is definitely still out there” in one of the season’s final scenes as one of “many uncertainties” still lingering in Hawkins. Although Sink also currently has “no clue” when she’ll begin filming the fifth and final season either, she’s also in no rush to the finish line, adding to Deadline, “Hopefully we can get out there soon, but then also I’m like, no, drag it out as long as you can. I don’t wanna have to leave.”

Still, the 20-year-old star also broke down Max’s emotionally heavy Season 4, particularly her “heartbreaking” (temporary) death scene in Lucas’ arms. “It really is just so sad,” the Fear Street actor told Entertainment Weekly. “When you're putting yourself in that moment and then you’re with someone like Caleb [McLaughlin], who I’ve known since I was very little, sometimes things can feel very real on that set. It was very emotional.”

Noting that Max is “brain dead, blind, and all of her bones are broken,” creators Ross and Matt Duffer aren’t making any promises she’ll make it out of the series unscathed. After all, they’re still mapping the journey to the planned series finale. “While a lot of Season 5 is actually pretty blurry, the last 30 minutes of it are pretty clear in our heads,” Ross explained in a recent Happy Sad Confused podcast interview. “So if we can make the journey entertaining, I think that we have an end that will hopefully satisfy. You can’t satisfy everyone, but the hope is that it’s something that feels right for this story.”

Either way, Sink joins viewers in hoping that Max’s Season 5 ending is a happy one.