Stranger Things star David Harbour says that season 4 will reveal an important secret about Hopper’s past. The highly anticipated fourth chapter in Netflix’s 1980s sci-fi/horror series has been pushed back by several production delays over the past two years. While no official release date has been announced yet, it seems unlikely that the new season would arrive before the end of 2021. When Stranger Things season 4 finally does premiere on Netflix, however, it’s promised to bring some of the show’s biggest stories and scares yet.
Ever since season 1 of Stranger Things, Hopper has been a favorite character among fans. Over time, his backstory has been revealed piece by piece. Hopper’s marriage fell apart after his daughter, Sara, fell ill with cancer as a child and eventually died. Up until the events of the show’s first season, Hopper lives a largely isolated and lonely existence, drinking to deal with his grief and depression while trying to keep the Hawkins Police Department in order. Other details of his past before the series began have been rare.
According to Harbour, fans can expect some more big Hopper reveals in Stranger Things season 4, including one huge secret that he and the show’s creators have been keeping for years. Speaking recently with Entertainment Tonight, Harbour teased the new developments for Hopper’s character. “We’re gonna reveal a lot of backstory points that we’ve only hinted at in boxes in his attic,” the star said, referencing some mysterious shots from past seasons. Read Harbour’s full quote about the big Hopper secret below.
“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. And we, me and the Duffers, would sit around and speculate on, ‘ooh, wouldn’t this be cool?’ the minute we started shooting. And we never thought we’d even get a second season, and then we get to do it in this season, and it’s so satisfying to have an idea five years prior and to go like, ‘oh this is the season where we’re going to let out this secret,’ that we were like, we were using just as a subtle thing to inform something, we’re gonna like lay it out finally, and it’s really cool.”
It’s possible that the big Hopper secret Harbour alludes to is tied to his time in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. That part of the character’s life has only been alluded to briefly and never in much detail. However, given the real-world history, there may be a lot about that period of Hopper’s past that he’s kept hidden from other characters or doesn’t like to discuss.
Beyond his military history, many other things could be revealed about Hopper in Stranger Things season 4. Most of his life remains unmentioned, aside from his time as a father, his teenage history with Joyce Byers, and the show's events. Hopper is completely blindsided by the series's supernatural and sci-fi elements, so the secret likely has nothing to do with the Upside Down or Hawkins Lab. The answer won’t be revealed until Stranger Things season 4 releases on Netflix.
Source: Entertainment Tonight