It's hard to imagine anyone but David Harbour playing the good-natured, if irascible, Chief Jim Hopper on Stranger Things. Harbour's well-received performance has launched his acting career to new heights, landing him roles in big-budget action movies like Extraction, along with Marvel's Black Widow. And yet, when the Duffer Brothers originally envisioned Stranger Things as a single season series titled Montauk, they had their eyes on two very different types of film actors for the Hopper character.
According to the Duffer Brothers' bible for Montauk, their hope was the "limited nature of the project" would allow them to target big-name movie actors for the show's adult roles. In the case of Hopper, the pair mentioned Ewan McGregor and Sam Rockwell as potential choices for the character. The Duffer Brothers also named Naomi Watts and Marisa Tomei as prospective candidates to play Joyce Byers, prior to casting Winona Ryder in the role instead.
Montauk's iteration of Hopper wasn't too different from the version Harbour plays on Stranger Things, broadly-speaking. The character has a similarly dark backstory involving the death of his daughter, which had led to him becoming the Chief of the Montauk police "not to help others but because it required very little of him." He was also a heavy drinker and chain-smoker who had gone out of his way to avoid meaningful relationships with other people, rather than processing his trauma in a healthy manner. However, just like on Stranger Things, Montauk's Hopper is forced to "confront the darkness of his past" after Joyce's son Will goes missing.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Hopper on Montauk and Harbour's character on Stranger Things is the Duffer Brothers' bible described the former as someone who lives "a hedonistic lifestyle in a shack by the beach." This could explain why the Duffer Brothers thought of Rockwell for the role of Harbour, given the Oscar-winner's history of playing characters whose wild, hedonistic behavior hides their darker and more troubled side (see: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke). McGregor had similarly portrayed self-destructive individuals in this vein in films like Velvet Goldmine, years before Montauk was developed in the mid-2010s.
Far from being a hedonist, Hopper on Stranger Things is the type of individual who many people -- being unaware of his past -- probably assume is just indolent and non-committal because he's the chief of police in the sleepy town of Hawkins, Indiana. What makes Harbour great in the role is he's just as believable in the scenes where Hopper is being grumpy for light-hearted reasons as he is in the moments where the character is either compelled to do the right thing or struggling with his inner demons. His dynamic with the rest of the show's cast is likewise a big part of what makes Stranger Things work.
While it would've been interesting to see Rockwell or McGregor's interpretation of Hopper, most would likely agree the Duffer Brothers made the right call in selecting Harbour for Stranger Things. This also freed up Rockwell and McGregor to continue tackling a wide range of roles in recent years, from movies like Jojo Rabbit and Doctor Sleep to their acclaimed performances on the TV series Fosse/Verdon and Fargo.
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.