The star goes behind the scenes of Max's return and what it means moving forward. What happened to Max on Stranger Things 5? Sadie Sink finally talks about the big reveal The star goes behind the scenes of Max's return and what it means moving forward. By Nick Romano :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/NicholasRomanoauthorphotoadc9b60763e34711935cbf7b3d768d24.jpg) Nick Romano is a senior editor at with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more. EW's editorial guidelines November 26, 2025 8:30 p.m.

The star goes behind the scenes of Max's return and what it means moving forward.

What happened to Max on Stranger Things 5? Sadie Sink finally talks about the big reveal

The star goes behind the scenes of Max's return and what it means moving forward.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

EW's editorial guidelines

November 26, 2025 8:30 p.m. ET

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Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) protects Max (Sadie Sink) on 'Stranger Things 5'. Credit:

- *Stranger Things 5* finally revealed what happened to Max Mayfield.

- Sadie Sink talks about her grand return and what it means moving forward.

- The star also unpacks the stranger-than-fiction real-world Easter egg related to a particular scene from episode 4.

**Warning: This article contains spoilers from *Stranger Things* season 5, episodes 3 and 4. **

The creators of *Stranger Things* called up Sadie Sink before she could read the script for season 4's high-stakes finale. They wanted to set her at ease. "It's gonna say you're dead for a second, but don't worry. That's not the case," Sink remembers them saying. "You have a role in season 5."

It wasn't until much closer to the filming start on the Netflix juggernaut's final season that they officially clued her in. The actress, who's now Tony nominated for Broadway's *John Proctor Is the Villain* and currently filming a mystery role for next year's *Spider-Man* movie, has been keeping it a secret ever since.

"I had to do chemistry reads with Holly," Sink tells ** on a Zoom call from London in late October, referring to her now-costar Nell Fisher, who plays an older Holly Wheeler. "That was the first time I got to read it and I was like, 'What? I'm in a cave? What do you mean?'"

Sink finally makes her proper *Stranger Things* return in the cliffhanger to episode 3 before laying it all out for Holly (and the audience) in episode 4. Internally, the writers refer to her location as Vecna's "mindscape." However, "for the show," Ross Duffer says, "we wanted to, obviously, come up with a term that was a little cooler than that, which is why we had Holly name it Camazotz" (a reference to the dark planet from *A Wrinkle In Time*).

Max herself describes it as "Vecna's prison." Essentially, her psyche is trapped inside the villain's memories, while her body remains back in Hawkins in a coma. Holly is in a similar position. Her mind is in the memory of Henry's 1959 Hawkins home, though her physical form is off somewhere else in the Upside Down being pumped full of whatever tendril gunk Vecna once plied Will (Noah Schnapp) with off screen in season 1.

Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler on 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

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In one particular scene, Max is shown walking through Henry's memory of Hawkins High in the year 1959, which is the setting of *Stranger Things: The First Shadow*, the prequel stage play that first opened in London's West End before transferring Stateside on Broadway. "I had seen the show in London before filming season 5, so I knew exactly where I was and what it was referring to," Sink says of that scene.

She also often thinks about the stranger-than-fiction experience she had starring in *John Proctor Is the Villain* at the Booth Theatre, which was located right across the street from the Marquis, home base for *The First Shadow* Broadway production. Was that close proximity just a coincidence or a real-life Easter egg?

"You wanna know something even more full circle? The directors [of *The First Shadow*], Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, directed me in my second Broadway show that I did, *The Audience*, which was also across the street from the Booth Theatre," Sink notes. "It's a very, very small world."

The other noticeable full-circle moment — a phrase most of those involved in *Stranger Things* seem to use frequently when talking about the final season — is the arrival of Fisher's Holly. Sink came up as a child actor working on the stage before joining the show at 14. She's now 23, and Fisher just turned 14 earlier this month.

Working with her, Sink recalls, "gave me some perspective. I was that age when I started on the show, and those teen-kid dynamics, that's what we've been used to. To be the older one in that dynamic was really interesting to explore."

Max (Sadie Sink) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) on 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

Max has been trying to escape this mindscape since the events of season 4. She found refuge in a series of caves within one memory that Vecna/Henry/One (Jamie Campbell Bower) refuses to revisit. Whatever Vecna's plan is, Max reveals that he needs 12 children to do it. Each time he takes one, a new gate opens to the Upside Down. When he took Max, the fourth gate emerged.

"I was personally really excited about it, just 'cause I was like, 'What does that version of Max look like when she's left completely on her own?'" Sink muses. "Does she go completely insane? Is she kind of thriving? Is she just like, 'Whatever'?"

Perhaps all of the above. "If it's gonna happen to any character, absolutely it's gonna be Max," the actress continues. "What they will explore later on in the season with Max and Holly and that relationship of them finding allies in each other, it was really interesting to take on — and super unexpected! But also really funny to see Max with a 12-year-old girl."

Sink recognizes the dark undercurrent of this storyline. She points to Max's past arcs, in which she struggled with depression and the loss of her brother. A specific moment that sticks with Sink even now is a season 4 monologue in which the character talks about wanting to kill her brother before making herself disappear.

It comes through the nuances of her performance in season 5, a little gesture or physical finesse added to her deliveries when Max talks about wanting to end her life before Holly gave her new hope.

Sadie Sink at the 'O'Dessa' premiere at SXSW in March 2025.

Hubert Vestil/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty

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"The subtlety is very important in those moments 'cause these are big things to say," Sink says. "For Max, it always feels truthful if it is matter-of-fact. She's very resourceful and very self-sufficient and always has been super herself but very guarded. So when dealing with her trauma, it's all very inward. When you get little glimpses of her sharing that, it's not a very comfortable thing for her. Therefore, it's never gonna be melodramatic. We're never gonna linger on it for too long because she would just never have it that way."

We already know some of what's to come when *Stranger Things 5* continues with the Volume 2 episodes on Christmas Day and the series finale on New Year's Eve. Past trailers revealed scenes of Demogorgons coming for Max's body in the hospital, forcing Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) to carry her out of bed and hide.

Sink commends McLaughlin for supporting her limp body through those scenes.

"Being unconscious, honestly, wasn't a bad gig at the end of the day," she comments. "I just felt bad for everyone who had to carry me around. The one thing that always stuck out to me, even in season 4, I can't help but look at myself in that hospital state and just laugh because I'm like, 'Of course that's where it ended for Max.' If you would've told me that in season 2, I wouldn't have believed you."**

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Source: Sci-Fi

Published: November 29, 2025 at 11:38AM on Source: RON MAG

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