news

David Harbour Teases ‘Darker’ Story Line for Hopper in ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4

*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

David Harbour is opening up about Chief Hopper’s future on Stranger Things, and his story line sounds like a doozy (to say the least).

The 45-year-old actor recently sat down for an interview with Deadline, where he discussed what’s to come in Stranger Things season four.

“Each season we get to see a different side of him, and last season it was sort of wacky,” he said. “I loved playing that, [but] now I think he’s painted in a bit of a darker palette, and he’s able to express these really deep things about him that we haven’t really known yet. It’s been hinted at, but we don’t really know.”

Season three of Stranger Things ended on a major cliffhanger, when (spoiler alert!) the Russian lab beneath the Starcourt Mall exploded with Hopper inside. While Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) were left to question Hopper’s fate, the end credits confirmed the Russians have an American hostage (aka Hopper).

According to Harbour, the best is yet to come. “We know that Hopper is the American in that Russian prison,” he explained. “To me, what happens in this season…it’s very epic and very big in a Stranger Things way. There’s monsters, there’s horrors, there’s scares, there’s great Indiana Jones-type action. But also, we get to see some of Hopper’s really deep backstory that we hinted at with the boxes in season two.”

Welp, hasn’t poor Joyce suffered enough? Stranger Things season four is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2021.

The Cast of ‘Stranger Things’ Had a Secret Table Read for Season 4



Greta Heggeness

Senior Editor

Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...
read full bio

Why You Should Trust Us

PureWow's editors and writers have spent more than a decade shopping online, digging through sales and putting our home goods, beauty finds, wellness picks and more through the wringer—all to help you determine which are actually worth your hard-earned cash. From our PureWow100 series (where we rank items on a 100-point scale) to our painstakingly curated lists of fashion, beauty, cooking, home and family picks, you can trust that our recommendations have been thoroughly vetted for function, aesthetics and innovation. Whether you're looking for travel-size hair dryers you can take on-the-go or women’s walking shoes that won’t hurt your feet, we’ve got you covered.