David Harbour has revealed that Jim Hopper will go through a "rebirth" during the next season of Stranger Things.
While speaking with Collider about the upcoming Black Widow movie next month, Harbour was asked about what he can reveal for the show's upcoming fourth season. "I mean, it's bigger," he began, "In scope, in scale, even in the idea that we are not in Hawkins anymore." He also claims that while the show will be introducing new elements, Season 4 will also be "tightening and wrapping up" others in preparation of the show's ultimate finale.
Talking on his character, Jim Hopper, Harbour was excited for the direction he would be taking. "It's my favorite season in the sense that he's at his purest. He's at his most vulnerable in a sense." He then mentions the only plot point about Hopper that has been available to fans prior to the interview, which is that he is a captive in Russian prison.
"We get to reinvent him in a sense...he gets to have a rebirth," Harbour even going as far as to compare it to Gandalf the Grey's transformation from Lord of the Rings where the wizard dies and comes back to life as Gandalf the White. "I'm really interested to explore this resurgence of him. We get to explore a lot of threads of his life that have merely been hinted at."
When fans first met Jim Hopper, he was in a very low place. He had lost his daughter Sarah to cancer, causing the end of his marriage and him going down a path of alcoholism and self-destruction. However, he learned to grow and become a better man after adopting Eleven and taking on the role of a father once again.
Not much is known about Hopper's family though. The only time we have seen his wife are in flashback sequences to his daughter's treatments and when he makes one phone call to her in Season 1. Perhaps fans will finally see the show delve more into Hopper's past and life outside of Hawkins.
Harbour promised more beyond an expanded backstory for the character as well though. "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." Fans will have to wait and see what becomes of Hopper next season.
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Priah Ferguson, Cary Elwes, Jake Busey, Maya Thurman-Hawke and Levon Thurman-Hawke. Season 4 has yet to receive a release date.
Source: Collider