Actor David Harbour opens up about Stranger Things season 5’s unprecedented scale. Harbour portrays Hawkins cop Jim Hopper, a small-town cop who is initially wrapped up in tracking down a missing boy. He would soon fight horrors from an alternate dimension, Soviet agents, and escape a Russian prison. Stranger Things season 5 will conclude the hit Netflix show, but an estimated release window is currently unclear as production has been paused due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
While Stranger Things season 5 production is on hold, Harbour spoke to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike) about the final chapter’s current status. The actor not only revealed that he and other members of the cast had received a script but praised the work of writers and series creator the Duffer Brothers as he described the final season as having a greater scale, unlike anything shown before. Check out Harbour’s full response below:
“Before the strike, we were sent scripts. They’re terrific, as per usual. They continue to outdo themselves, these currently-on-strikes writers, called the Duffer brothers. It’s a hell of an undertaking, too. The set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we’ve done in the past.”
Stranger Things Season 5 Could Be a High-Stakes But Fitting Ending
With Stranger Things season 4 ending with world-changing consequences, season 5 is already set to have some of the highest, potentially cataclysmic stakes that the series has ever had. Despite the efforts of Hopper and the rest of the core cast, Vecna’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) attempts to open a massive gateway to the Upside Down in the center of Hawkins did have an impact on the town, as it suffered a massive earthquake and the ground split. While the two worlds were prevented from becoming one as Eleven (Millie Bobbie Brown) saved Max’s (Sadie Sink) life and from becoming the final catalyst, Hawkins stands on the precipice of becoming hell on Earth.
Despite this, the Duffer Brothers have issued various statements that the show’s conclusion will not trade its core elements for a large-scale spectacle and will provide a payoff that brings Stranger Things’ story full circle. Stranger Things season 5 will focus on Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), not only returning to the character whose disappearance sparked the inciting incidents but giving Will a greater spotlight after playing more of a supporting role in later seasons. As such, season 5 could provide a fulfilling end for both Will’s overall arc and a story that ties up all loose threads established since the show began neatly.
After Stranger Things season 4 ended on a pyrrhic, bittersweet note for the core cast, there are high expectations for how season 5 could wrap up the full story. However, with higher stakes and characters broken and bruised by season 4’s events, it brings concerns about what is in store for the beloved cast and their fates.
