David Harbour (Hopper) teases "very beautiful" Stranger Things 5 finale

It's now been over two years since Stranger Things season 4 ended, and we're still impatiently awaiting the arrival of the fifth and final season. The lengthy wait only adds plenty more pressure and anticipation onto the final installment. It's destined to be an emotional affair for everyone, but especially the cast who've been working on the show for almost a decade.

In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, star David Harbour looked back on his journey on the Netflix series. "Getting back to the OG crew of this final season has been wild in a way because we have come so far, and it is not the show that we started in Season 1," he said. Over the last few years, he's watched much of the cast grow from children to adults, making big names for themselves in the industry. "I think that's a wild experience for all of us. I mean, those kids were 11 years old when we started, 12 years old. Now they're 20, and they're shaving, and they aren't kids anymore."

I mean, look no further than Millie Bobby Brown, who's become one of the most famous faces in Hollywood thanks to huge roles in Enola Holmes and the MonsterVerse movies. And then there's Finn Wolfhard, who's making waves behind the camera as well as on-screen appearances. "Finn [Wolfhard] just directed a movie," Harbour added, before teasing some of the high emotions that came out during the cast's read-through of the series finale.

"We just did a read-through of the last episode and the amount of crying... Like the episode is very beautiful. But there's also a deeper level of that... this was actually their childhood. They were 11 years old and grew up and fought this monster. And I've never seen so much heavy, heavy weeping from teenagers or young adults in my life."

- David Harbour

It seems all the hard work is paying off. The final season has been through the wringer, thanks to the pandemic and industry strikes putting the pause button on production. "It was a challenging season for a number of reasons. The biggest being Covid and just the ripples that that sent through our industry, because we are an industry of intimacy," Harbour said.

Stranger Things 5 is expected to wrap filming later this year. Naturally, the final season doesn't have a release date yet, but late 2025 seems like a good estimate. The Upside Down awaits!

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