In a recent interview with People, David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy) revealed that the upcoming fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things will “see a lot of your favorite characters doing the thing that you love them for…but you’ll also see them twist it and turn it into other colors and other flavors”. Harbour did not say what these new colors and flavors will be for other characters, but hinted a bit about what this might mean for his own character, Hawkins’ Sheriff Jim Hopper.

After a teaser trailer in early 2020 revealed what many fans suspected all along, the news official broke that Harbour’s Hopper will spend a portion of season four imprisoned in a Serbian workcamp. During his time there, audiences will get a glimpse into more of the beloved character’s pre-Hawkins backstory, according to People.

“This season is my favorite,” Harbour told People “because [Hopper’s] really is going to show you some new colors and what he’s really made up of.” While routing around nearby Hopper’s belongings in season two, the Sheriff’s adopted daughter Eleven walks by boxes labeled “Vietnam” and “New York”. These boxes were more than mere set pieces and Harbour told People that these details are what makes the show’s creators, The Duffer Brothers (Stranger Things, Wayward Pines), “very good writers.”

Yahoo posits that Hopper’s Russian isolation, compounded with these story details, could make season four a particularly dark one for the character that is lovingly referred to as “America’s TV dad”. However, Harbour indicated that other characters will reveal similarly new shades and dimension in the show’s upcoming season, which gives fans plenty to speculate about. Alternative Press’ takeaway from Harbour’s interview was that season four of Stranger Things “may change how we feel about some characters for good.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stranger Things (@strangerthingstv)

The series resumed filming season four in Atlanta in October, after COVID-19 shutdown initial production in March, and is expected to drop on Netflix sometime in 2021. No new trailer or official promotional photos have been revealed since the February, however recent additions to the cast have been announced and include Robert Englund (The Nightmare on Elm Street), Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeny Todd) and Sherman Augustus (Into the Badlands). In August, the Duffer Brothers told The Hollywood Reporter that the upcoming fourth season won’t be the last for the nostalgia-soaked sci-fi hit.

meanwhile in the upside down… pic.twitter.com/BtPlMjy0pS

— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) October 1, 2020

Image credit: Raymond Flotat