David Harbour thought Stranger Things was going to be “a big failure”
By Ariba Bhuvad
Stranger Things pretty much took over the world when it premiered back in 2016. I remember everyone was ranting and raving about it. In fact, I binge-watched the entire first season in one sitting, so it’s safe to say the show was an immediate success.
However, David Harbour, aka Sheriff Hopper, was far from convinced that the show would succeed, as he shared on Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
"I was sure it was gonna be a complete disaster and a big failure before it came out. I remember when we were shooting, too, we would all sit around talking about how terrible it was gonna be, mainly because of my performance. […] I thought I was tanking the whole show. And then, before it came out, you normally see things on buses. I live in New York, I’m wandering around, buses, phone booths, there’s ads for shows. Not a single ad."
As Harbour recalls, one of his friends even thought that Netflix was trying to “bury” the series. And indeed, he’s right that there wasn’t a lot of advertising for Stranger Things when before the first season; it found fans slowly, through word of mouth. Clearly, it worked.
Despite assuming the worst, Harbour thinks back on those early days with a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings. “I really thought it was gonna be nothing and then people sort of embraced it and it
became this grassroots event and it’s very gratifying.”
Not only did people embrace the show, but three seasons, Sheriff Hopper may be the most buzzed-about character, likely because he died in the season finale…although the world has its doubts about whether he’s really gone. We all watched that season 3 post-credits scene.
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But that’s a topic for another time. At the least, it has everyone more excited than ever to see Stranger Things season 4, which is on the way.
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h/t Digital Spy