Stranger Things star defends divisive ending and says the clues were there all along
Months after Stranger Things’ finale split the fandom, David Harbour is backing the divisive ending. The Jim Hopper star says the conclusion was inevitable — and he lays out why it had to happen.
If you thought the world was done debating the Stranger Things finale, think again. Months after Netflix wrapped up its juggernaut sci-fi series in a way that got plenty of fans grumbling online, David Harbour – the bloke behind Hawkins' most harried police chief, Jim Hopper – has decided to wade in and set the record straight himself.
Harbour on Eleven’s Fate: Not at All Ambiguous
Harbour’s recently been fielding questions about the show’s ending, and he’s got absolutely no time for those hanging onto hope about Millie Bobby Brown’s character. Instead of hedging or playing coy, he made it very clear: as far as he’s concerned, Eleven really does snuff it in the finale. Not off hiding out in Spain, not blinking through a portal somewhere waiting for the next spin-off – just gone.
There are co-stars insisting maybe Eleven's out there, since viewers briefly glimpse her in some far-flung locale after the main events. Absolutely doesn’t wash with Harbour. In his own words: 'A lot of people think maybe she’s in Spain or whatever. But right from the very beginning of that series – we love this little girl, but you really can’t have a little girl in Hawkins, Indiana, with supernatural powers running around. She just cannot exist.' He even jokes that you 'gotta kill her' if any sense of normality is ever meant to return to Hawkins. No magic, no monsters, no more Eleven: that’s the only way the show's universe wraps up properly, as far as Harbour's concerned.
Sure, he throws in a dig at Netflix to lighten things up: 'Until Netflix needs to raise their subscription rate. Then – ladies and gentlemen: ‘Eleven,’ the new series!' Absolutely savage, and frankly, spot on from Harbour there.
On the Show’s Repetitiveness
One interesting aside: Harbour admits things could get a bit samey after a while. For a show that started as a supernatural love letter to 80s horror, he’s not pretending it was all uncharted territory by the end. Credit to him for just saying it out loud rather than dressing it up in PR fluff.
Digging into Hopper and Eleven’s Dynamic
Harbour hasn’t just been talking about plot points, either. He’s got genuine enthusiasm for Hopper’s surprisingly complicated relationship with Eleven. He reckons their connection is all about mutual healing, trauma and being the exact glue each other never knew they needed. His words: 'It’s like trying to heal shared trauma, which my therapist would say that we’re trying to do all the time, whether we acknowledge it or not. Those two are perfect interlocking puzzle pieces.' Not your typical police-chief-and-science-experiment rapport, then, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Where You Might Spot Harbour Next
- Recently, Harbour's turned up in HBO Max’s limited series DTF St. Louis, teaming up alongside Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini.
All these thoughts popped up in conversation with Variety amid the lingering Stranger Things afterglow. Harbour’s never been one to keep his opinions to himself, and honestly, TV would be duller if he did.