Stranger Things may have been the franchise that made David Harbour a recognized star, but after almost 10 years of Jim Hopper, it looks like Harbour is finally ready to hang up the sheriff’s badge.
In a recent talk with Scarlett Johansson for Interview Magazine (via Variety), Harbour shares:
“When I started I loved [Stranger Things] so much… Buddies of mine who’d done TV shows for many years said, ‘By season three or four you’ll be running.’ And I was like, ‘Never! I love all these guys so much.’ And then you get to a certain point where you’re like, ‘How much more story is there?’ You’re having to play a lot of the same beat, and there’s a feeling where you’re like, ‘I want to take a risk. I want to do something that people haven’t seen me do before.’ So yeah, after 10 years, it’s like, ‘Okay.’”
Admittedly, the show could have said good-bye to the Jim Hopper character earlier in Season 3, but for some reason they decided to bring him back as a Russian prisoner for Season 4. Maybe he’ll end up dying in Season 5, but with the fakeout death already happening, it would feel redundant to kill him off ‘for good’ this time.
Maybe he’s allowed to have his happy ending with Joyce Byers, but since that is pretty predictable, maybe the Duffer Brothers have something else in store for him for the final season.
The fifth season of Stranger Things premieres on Netflix on Nov. 26.
