Stranger Things star David Harbour discussed how Season 4 of the Netflix series will see a reborn Hopper come into his own.
Harbour spoke about his character's upcoming arc at New York Comic Con, revealing how Season 4 will see Hopper have his own Gandalf moment. "As we move forward into Season 4, one of the things I've talked about already is, the Duffer Brothers and I talked about this Gandalf idea throughout the whole thing, where you have a character who is Gandalf the Gray, and fights a monster, the Balrog, descends into hell, and reemerges as Gandalf the White," Harbour said.
"So in a sense, I mean, even this embryonic haircut that I have is... there's a rebirth in him this season and a coming to terms with this toxicity that he's carrying around, this trauma really, which is where it comes from," Harbour continued. "And him struggling with that and you'll get to see a lot more, specifically, of what those traumas were, which I've always wanted to get into each of those cardboard boxes in the attic, you know, about Dad, Vietnam... you'll see a lot more."
Harbour went on to talk about how the Season 4 teaser trailer offers hints of where Hopper is going -- and he can't wait for people to see it.
"We go into a lot more later, which I really love, and we also get back to, because he'd been this father," Harbour continued. "His biggest struggle was like, you know, with the Doritos and like with the yelling at his kids... Because he has to go into Russia, you've already seen -- if you've watched the trailer -- with a flame thrower. I mean, he becomes this warrior that we've always known him to be. And he still has the spotlight. So anyway, he has all these twists and turns, and also there is a tremendous arc of redemption which plays out in each season, but on a broad scale, you'll start to see we're really arcing toward the end of this redemption, which is, to me, very beautiful."
While rumors have flown that Season 4 will be the last for the show, but Stranger Things spinoffs are in the works, with one likely focused on Eleven -- meaning Hopper could easily be onboard as well.
Stranger Things Season 4 arrives in 2022 on Netflix.
Source: New York Comic Con