WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3, streaming now on Netflix.
The end of Stranger Things Season 3 saw David Harbour's Chief Hopper and Winona Ryder's Joyce Byers entering a secret Russian facility with the aim of shutting down a new portal to the Upside Down. After planning a first date, Hopper was seemingly killed in an explosion.
Although neither could confirm Hopper's fate, Harbour and Ryder reacted to the death and the apparent end to any chance of the two popular characters finally getting together romantically, a ship called "Jopper," in an interview with Mashable.
Speaking about their final exchange, Harbour said, "Well, [the whole season] leads to that epic, climactic moment of just one simple look between them. To me, that alone [tells] a lot about their shared 30 years of history together."
"They have their own traumas, they have their own difficulties, and they do act out on each other," he continued. "I mean, Hopper certainly acts out all over the place. He's constantly angry and doesn't know how to process his emotions... It's their own brand of dysfunction. When you root for Jopper, you don't expect for them to just fall into each other's arms. I think the fun that we bring to it is that it is complicated."
"There is this thing that they're both very afraid of for different reasons," Ryder added, making reference to the way their losses have made them adverse to commitment. "I just, I wonder what would have happened if... you know?"
Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Priah Ferguson, Cary Elwes, Jake Busey and Maya Thurman-Hawke.