Hopper’s Role In Stranger Things Almost Went To Another Famous Actor

David Harbour, who portrays Jim Hopper in Netflix’s Stranger Things, recently revealed how the role almost went to another more famous actor.

Jim Hopper has one of the best character developments in the series. He goes from being an annoyingly lazy police officer in Hawkins to an absolute gem who made us all ball our eyes out in the season 3 finale.

So to think of anyone other than Harbour in the role of Hopper is unimaginable. However, during a New York Comic Con 2021 panel, the actor talked about how time and time again he suspects who could’ve been cast in the role had that person accepted it,

As reported by CBR, Harbour said,

And I joke with the Duffer Brothers. There was one person that was offered the role of Hopper before me, who was apparently a big movie star, and occasionally when I am in such a self-hatred mood that I Google myself, ScreenRant’s got all these articles that are always like, occasionally they’ll be like, ‘Ewan McGregor was off-,’ but I still don’t know who the actual celebrity — if anybody knows, let me know so I can thank them for passing.

David Harbour

Harbour was also nominated for several Primetime Emmy awards for his performance as Hopper.

It looked like the character was killed off at the end of season 3, but the post-credit scene had fans suspecting otherwise. The fan theories were proven correct when a teaser for season 4 showed Hopper breathing and alive in Russia.

(As happy as I was to see him alive, I felt cheated! It meant I cried over NOTHING when Eleven read Hopper’s letter in the third season’s finale.)

Speaking of teasers, Harbour added that there’s another one on the way, and all of these locations are connected to season 4,

So, there’s four… Scene 001, 002… then we came out with the Creel House. There’ll be one more. So there are these storylines coursing through.

Harbour

Season 4 will use the arcs established in the first three seasons as a base to tell an intricate story,

There’s an escape, Hopper trying to get home to his family element to it, which is really incredible. It’s an incredible storyline. I think I have the best storyline… It relates to this narrative coming back, and then there’s this new Creel House thing, which is a new element of a situation in Hawkins, which of course, all relate… And [it] really becomes a complete piece.

So it’s a really deep season, and it’s got tremendous action to it — action on a level that we’ve never done before. So, it’s really exciting, and I’m so sorry it’s taking so long. It’s gonna be so good, though. Don’t give up on us!

Season 4 does not have a release date yet, so it definitely feels like a long wait.

(Next thing you know, the kids are all grown up, and the series would be set in the 90s instead.)

Hopefully, we don’t have to wait much longer as Stranger Things season 4 is scheduled to arrive on Netflix in 2022.

About Stranger Things

Stranger Things is an American sci-fi horror TV series created by The Duffer Brothers for Netflix. 

Set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the show follows the story of a young girl called Eleven, who has superpowers and her adventures with her group of friends. These dangerous adventurers include surviving in and saving a town that has an evil parallel universe attached to it called the Upside Down.

It stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Sadie Sink, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Maya Hawke. The show has been renewed for a fifth and final season.

Source: CBR