In a recent interview, while promoting his upcoming film "Violent Night," the fan-favorite actor, David Harbour, opened up about his role as the former Chief of Police, Jim Hopper, on Stranger Things and also balancing his busy filming schedule.
Earlier this year, The Duffer Brothers announced that Stranger Things had been renewed for a fifth and final season, with filming expected to begin sometime next year.
As the hit Netflix series heads toward its conclusion, David Harbour believes the finale will be a "home run." In the last season, Jim Hopper, who was presumed dead, broke out of a high-security Russian prison with the help of Joyce Byers, and now reunited with the gang, they prepare to go up against Vecna, the big baddie of the show.
Sentimental about the role he's played for the last 6 years, Harbour said: "It will be my goodbye to Jim Hopper, which is a big deal." However, he added that the long wait for the final season was his consolation, saying: "Fortunately, I feel like I have a long time to say goodbye because I think we're going to take a long time shooting these episodes."
Series fans will be delighted to hear Harbour's vote of confidence in the Duffer Brothers, a sentiment he expressed by saying:
I know those Duffer brothers are very specific, and I know they want to get that last season. I mean if you look at Season 4, I have a feeling that Season 5 may not be as long, but it certainly will be packed to the brim with good stuff that you love. I mean, they really are getting better at giving you that home run that the audiences love. And I think that Season 5 will do that so much.
What's more amazing is the fact that Harbour will also film Thunderbolts, which premieres in 2024.
Marvel Studios revealed David Harbour will reprise his role as Alexei Shostakov, also known as the Red Guardian following his debut in Black Widow. Replying to how he feels about his busy schedule, Harbour said: "Yeah, next year is going to be a very tough year for me schedule-wise," and also stated, "it's going to be crazy." However, he is prepared to take on the challenge, as he confirmed by saying, "They are two things that I love. I love both characters very much."
With both projects set at the same location and filming at the same time, Harbour revealed how lucky he is, stating: "It's going to have to be a back-and-forth with me. They're going to have to sort of share me. And so it is kind of like, I don't know exactly how they're working it, but it's a week on, week off, two weeks on, two weeks off, something like that where I would go back and forth. They both are being shot in Atlanta. That may have also been structured in a certain way, but yes, it is helpful. So I can just literally shoot a scene in Stranger Things and get in my car and run over to the Marvel scene to shoot a scene there maybe."
The only problem for him is the different appearances of both characters. But, he already seems to have come up with a solution. As Habour explains, "Hopefully, the idea will be because of these limitations, you have to shoot these two characters back-to-back, you [can] use that as inspiration. It's like, what can I do that'll be really cool for Hopper and really cool for Alexei that's going to be able to do these things in tandem, and I'm going to try to get real creative, we're all going to try to get real creative about it and come up with something real cool. But it definitely is a factor. You don't have just blank slate creativity. You have to think strategically."
Thunderbolts is set to premiere on July 26, 2024. The Thunderbolts team will include:
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost
- Wyatt Russell as John Walker/U.S. Agent
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova/Black Widow
- David Harbour as the Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian
- Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster.
