Stranger Things season 4 is spilling all sorts of secrets, including a big one about Hopper that David Harbour and the Duffer brothers have known about since season 1.
Stranger Things season 4 is still in production, without a firm release date, which makes us all the more excited to get even the tiniest tidbits about the supernatural drama. And Harbour, who has been promoting Marvel's Black Widow, recently teased some juicy revelations about the "boxes in his attic" and a "really cool" secret he's been keeping for years.
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The last we saw Hopper, he seemingly died and subsequently mourned by adopted daughter Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). However, a post-credit scene hinted that the sheriff has survived — and was being held prisoner in Russia. A teaser trailer confirmed this.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight (h/t SlashFilm), Harbour previewed season 4 as "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," the actor said. "We’re gonna see a lot of these different threads, and also, we get to see a rebirth of him."
Those boxes he refers to were first seen in season 2, chapter 4, "Will the Wise." And actually, they were in Hopper's cellar. Eleven discovered a trove of boxes labeled "Dad," "New York," "Vietnam" and "Hawkins Lab." She peeked into the last one, but the others remain a mystery.
As the new season digs into Hopper's backstory, it will reveal something that Harbour and the show's creators cooked up all the way back at the very beginning.
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"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 teased. "Me and the Duffers would sit around and speculate, ‘Oh, wouldn’t this be cool?’ the minute we started shooting.
"We never thought we’d even get a second season, and then we get to do it in this season. It’s so satisfying to have had an idea five years prior, and to go like, 'Oh, this is a season when we’re gonna let out this secret that we were using just as a subtle thing to inform something.' We’re gonna lay it out finally, and it’s really cool."
Will it turn everything Upside Down? We'll have to wait and find out whenever Stranger Things season 4 premieres.
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Kelly is the streaming channel editor for Tom’s Guide, so basically, she watches TV for a living. Previously, she was a freelance entertainment writer for Yahoo, Vulture, TV Guide and other outlets. When she’s not watching TV and movies for work, she’s watching them for fun, seeing live music, writing songs, knitting and gardening.