Stranger Things Actress Shares Cancer Recovery Amid Season 5 Cut

Jennifer Marshall, the actress who portrayed Susan Hargrove in Netflix's "Stranger Things," revealed on social media this week that her exclusion from the show's fifth and final season came at a challenging time, as she recovered from cancer and could have benefited from union health insurance through continued work.

Marshall, 44, shared an Instagram video on Tuesday questioning her character's absence during key moments in Season 5, including her onscreen daughter Max's extended hospital stay following a coma that began at the end of Season 4. "I had cancer, I get it," Marshall wrote in the post's caption. "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." She added hashtags including #cancersucks and #butwhy.

The post built on an earlier Instagram message Marshall shared on New Year's Eve, shortly after the series finale aired. Alongside an image of Max, played by Sadie Sink, in a hospital bed, she asked followers, "Okay folks! It's over but where was she? What kind of mother isn't there for her...