There’s been a lot of hype around Stranger Things Season 4 and viewers have been left reeling after fan-favorite Jim Hopper seemingly died at the end of Season 3.
However, a post-credit scene hinted that Hopper is still alive, and is being held in a Russian prison where prisoners risk becoming a resident captured Demogorgon’s lunch. This was later confirmed in a teaser trailer last year.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, David Harbour, who plays Hopper, admitted shooting Season 4 was “the heaviest dramatic stuff I’ve ever had to do.”
“We get to see a lot of Hopper at his most vulnerable, we’re gonna reveal a lot of backstory points that we’ve only hinted at in boxes in his attic,” he told the outlet. “We’re gonna see a lot of these different threads, and also, we get to see a rebirth of him.”
Harbour previously confirmed the upcoming season is set to bring the show to a “definite ending”. Now, the actor has revealed that a huge secret surrounding Hopper’s history will finally be uncovered.
“There’s some fun stuff we’re doing this season, but it’s also the heaviest dramatic stuff I’ve ever had to do,” Harbour told Entertainment Tonight. “We get to see a lot of Hopper at his most vulnerable, we’re gonna reveal a lot of backstory points that we’ve only hinted at in boxes in his attic.”
David Harbour has known Hopper’s secret ever since Stranger Things began
The “boxes in his attic” Harbour refers to are first shown in the season 2 episode, Will the Wise. While cleaning, Eleven, who Hopper adopted at the end of the season, stumbles upon some mystifying boxes in the attic of their shared cabin.
They are labeled “Dad,” “New York,” “Vietnam”, and “Hawkins Lab”, and left fans speculating over Hopper’s hidden past.
In the interview, Harbour revealed he had known about Hopper’s secret since the very beginning of Season 1.
“There’s one thing in it that plays very big in this season that I’ve known since the first frame of the first season,” he told Entertainment Tonight.
“It’s so satisfying to have had an idea five years prior, and to go like, “Oh this is a season when we’re going to let out this secret that we were using just as a subtle thing to inform something,”
He added, “We’re gonna lay it out finally, and it’s really cool.”
Stranger Things Season 4 release date
At the time of writing, an official release date for Season 4 has yet to be announced. Finn Wolfhard, who stars as Mike Wheeler, indicated that Stranger Things Season 4 “should be out sometime next year”, meaning most likely sometime in 2022.
Despite that Netflix announced Stranger Things would be returning for a fourth season back in September 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced production to cease filming for the majority of 2021, causing significant delays.
In the meantime, we can only keep our eyes peeled for more teaser trailers. The descriptions alongside the two existing teasers heavily imply fans can expect two more.
Stranger Things is currently available to stream on Netflix.