David Harbour Compares Hopper’s Rebirth In Stranger Things To Gandalf

It has been nearly two years since Jim Hopper’s letter to Eleven had us crying at the end of Stranger Things Season 3. Many fans (including myself) refused to believe that Hopper was truly dead. Netflix released a teaser back in February 2020, ‘resurrecting’ Hopper and confirming that he was, in fact, the ‘American’ at the end of Season 3 captured by the Russians.

Similar to many other projects, Season 4 production was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Netflix keeps on teasing the show’s return with clips and cast announcements, there is still no confirmed release date.

Fans have been excited nonetheless as the hype and anticipation keeps on building up. Now, speaking to Collider’s Steve Weintraub ahead of Black Widow’s release, actor David Harbour commented on what fans can expect of Hopper’s return.

Harbour teased the importance of this season taking place outside of Hawkins as at the end of season 3, we saw El leaving with the town with Joyce and Will. And, of course, with Jim being in Russia.

“I mean, it’s bigger, that’s the first thing. In scope, in scale, even in the idea that we’re not in Hawkins anymore. We, locale-wise, we’re bigger. We’re introducing new stuff, but we’re also tightening and wrapping up in a certain direction to make it have a clear, clean specific, and definite ending at some point, which I can’t really talk about.”

David Harbour

Harbour compared Hopper’s journey to that of Gandalf and talked about his character’s ‘rebirth,’ in a way, as he almost died and with everyone in Hawkins basically thinking he’s dead.

“I can talk about Hopper. I guess I say this about a lot of seasons, but it’s my favorite season, in the sense that he’s at his purest, he’s at his most vulnerable, in a sense. He’s been, as we’ve seen, he’s in this Russian prison, so we get to reinvent him in a sense.

He gets to have a rebirth from what he had become, and we’d always sort of planned this almost resurrection (like) you have of Gandalf (who) dies, Gandalf the Grey re-emerge, and I’m really interested in this resurgence of him.

We get to explore a lot of threads in his life that have merely been hinted at that we get to see a lot more of. And there’s some real surprises that you know nothing about that will start to come out in this and play big as the series goes on.”

David Harbour

Stranger Things is this perfect mix of old-school nostalgia, horror, comedy, teen and family drama, and a rollercoaster of emotions. Hopper has gone through tremendous character development throughout the previous seasons. It would be interesting to see how he grows further.

Stranger Things season 4 has a big task living up to two years’ worth of anticipation, but the series has always stepped a level up with each season, so it won’t be a surprise if Season 4 ends up out-doing all the previous seasons.

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.