Stranger Things season 4 is coming…eventually, after this coronavirus-induced shutdown is over. The supernatural drama has been a huge hit for Netflix, and creators Matt and Ross Duffer have been hard at work on producing the continuing adventures of Eleven, Mike, Dustin, Steve, Joyce and the rest of the gang from the monster capital of the world: Hawkins, Indiana.
And then there’s Sheriff Jim Hopper, who ended season 3 sacrificing himself in a Soviet research facility deep below the Starcourt Mall, and who then somehow turned up in a Siberian prison in the teaser for season 4:
How does that happen? We’re not sure, but actor David Harbour is certainly excited about it. “or my character, very deep and profound and moving and interesting and very different from last season,” he recently told Gold Derby. Hopper spent most of season 3 trying to be a good dad to his adopted daughter Eleven, not an easy task when he’s always wearing that garish shirt, but season 4 is a different story. “He’s gonna go on a much darker journey, and I’m really excited for you guys to see that.”
And after that? The Duffer brothers have intimated that they know how the show ends, but they’ve been cagey about exactly how long it’s going to go on. Is season 4 the end? Will there be a season 5, or even a season 6? We don’t have all the answers, but Hopper basically gives away that there’s at least another two seasons planned:
"I will tell you in season 4 and in season 5, if we’re ever able to film again, there is a lot to be revealed around the complexities of [Hopper’s] story, which is really rich, and I’m really excited for you to see. And, it’s one of these things where I see the series as a whole. Because we know the ending, you’ll be able to go back and watch it and see, you know, what we were planting in season 3 that paid off in season 4 and season 5."
Seasons 4 and 5, you say? Stranger Things season 5 confirmed.
As for “the complexities of story, Harbour makes it sound like we’re gonna dig into the character’s past. We know he was a soldier in the Vietnam War and a cop in New York, but we know precious little about what those times in his life were like, or how they affected him. To hear Harbour tell it, they traumatized Hopper and made it hard for him to relate to other people. Losing his first daughter and having his marriage with his wife fall apart only exacerbated his issues.
“He wasn’t taught to feel feelings, he wasn’t taught to express feelings. In a sense he wasn’t even really taught to think for himself,” Harbour said. “He’s just terrible at self-awareness and understanding what he’s feeling.”
We saw this in season 3, when Hopper wrote what he was feeling when he and Eleven were experiencing some friction in their relationship, but rather than telling her, he ultimately decided to lay down the law and play the tough guy dad. For Harbour, the idea that Hopper might make himself vulnerable to someone he cares about is a lot scarier than anything he faced before. “The fact that he couldn’t express that to her is what makes me cry,” he said.
"He’s one of the biggest kids on the show…He’s also like a little boy who’s been so traumatized and hurt that he can’t really have relationships with other people that are full, that are honest. He’s very invested in blame, he’s very invested…in this righteousness that he has."
And we’ll start to understand a lot more of that soon. “I do know that we are gonna reveal some cool stuff that will make those intimacy issues a lot more understandable…when you watch season 4,” Harbour said.
How soon? If only we knew…
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