With Stranger Things season four arriving next year, fans at New York Comic Con were eager to hear about David Harbour’s news on the return of Chief Hopper. While Stranger Things takes inspiration from a few 80s sci fi properties, an older fantasy property inspired the return of the Hawkins police chief Harbour portrays. The actor related that the return of Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings inspired the character arc of Hopper going into season 4.
For those who need a recap, Chief Hopper seemingly died at the end of season 3 when a secret Russian portal gun exploded. But notably, Hopper was absent from the shots of the various personal in the area disintegrating. This lead to speculation that he may have lept into the portal itself, a theory more or less confirmed by his reappearance in Kamchatka in the first promo for season 4.
Similarly, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings also appeared to die but then resurfaced later in the series. Harbour boasted an impressive knowledge of the character, outlining his sudden and emotional faux-demise at the hands of the Balrog and then reappearing later to the Hobbits when they all thought he had perished.
But he was especially inspired not by the plot elements of the reappearance but by the reckoning and rebirth that the character goes through. “[The Duffer Brothers] and I talked about the Gandalf idea,” he told the crowd, elaborating on the way Gandalf becomes a different person from going from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White. He described Chief Hopper as someone with a lot of flaws and trauma who likewise would get changed by this sort of rebirth, saying “he has all these twists and turns and this brilliant arc of redemption.” Expect Season 4 to deal with him coming to terms with his past and becoming “a little more self-aware”
Each season of Stranger Things so far has had various storylines that intersect by the end. Harbour explained that season 4 will focus on four. “Me in Russia. From Russia with love,” he chuckled, adding that the Russia storyline will segue into one about him getting home. The third storyline will focus on Eleven learning more about the institute she grew up in. And then the fourth storyline will focus on the Creel House that we recently saw a trailer about.
Overall, Harbour said that the upcoming fourth season has “got tremendous action to it. Action on a level we’ve never done before.” The crowd cheered when he added, “I think you’re going to see more development of the Joyce-Hopper relationship”
In terms of references to various science fiction and classic films, he said that season 4 took inspiration from Alien 3 and The Great Escape, among other films.
Harbour also reflected on his roles ranging from live theater, such as Shakespeare in the Park, to major films such as Hellboy and Black Widow. Currently he’s planning on returning to the stage next summer for a Theresa Rebeck play.
His all time favorite role? He loves doing live theater and loved playing hamlet twice but he admitted that while it sounds conventional, “Hopper is my favorite thing I’ve ever done.”
