Stranger Things' Jennifer Marshall says season 5 role could have offered health insurance

The actor, who was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in 2021, knows she isn't "entitled to a role."

By Drew Gillis  |  January 8, 2026 | 11:22am
Screenshot: Netflix
TV News Stranger Things
Stranger Things' Jennifer Marshall says season 5 role could have offered health insurance

Stranger Things‘ Max Mayfield was never known for her stable home life, so it’s not all that surprising on a plot level that the character’s mother, Susan Hargrove, was absent from the show’s final season. However, that character’s actor, Jennifer Marshall, has gone on record to say that she could have really used the work. After posting on Instagram on January 1 asking fans where they thought Susan was, the actor then posted on January 6: “I had cancer, I get it. But I was in remission during the shooting of season five. 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.” 

According to People, Marshall was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in 2021, and last appeared in Stranger Things during the show’s fourth season, which aired in 2022. Marshall tells People that she isn’t sure why the character wasn’t included in season 5. “It would have helped me not only financially, but would have been a mental and emotional uplift after battling cancer for almost two years. Either way, no one is entitled to a role, cancer or not,” reads a statement from the actor published in the magazine. “My heart remains grateful, and I will always give those involved in the decision-making the benefit of the doubt.”

Like longer breaks between seasons and diminished residuals, the unstable nature of health insurance can often be a hurdle for working actors. In 2024, Jimmy Kimmel offered to hire actors who were one role away from getting SAG health insurance; he had previously done the bit in 2022 with guest host Kerry Washington. In 2020, 10 actors, including Ed Asner, filed a lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA over benefit reductions for senior members of the union, per The New York Times. That case was settled in 2023.

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