'Stranger Things' Star David Harbour Teases A "Definite Ending" For The Series

The inevitable ending of Netflix's sci-fi juggernaut Stranger Things has been the subject of tons of speculation over the past several years. Now actor David Harbour, who plays Hawkins' police chief Jim Hopper, is adding a bit more fuel to the fire.

In a new interview with Collider, Harbour was asked how the upcoming fourth season of the show compares to the previous seasons, and his answer included a tease about the ending.

"I mean, it's bigger, that's the first thing," he said. "In scope, in scale, even in the idea that we're not in Hawkins anymore. We, locale-wise, we're bigger. We're introducing new stuff, but we're also tightening and wrapping up in a certain direction to make it have a clear, clean, specific, and definite ending at some point, which I can't really talk about."

The last time we saw Hopper's character, he was trapped in a Russian prison; meanwhile, Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) had moved her family and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) out of the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Season 4 will be the first season in which a majority of the action takes place outside of Hawkins.

Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Things, previously mentioned that they thought the show might last a total of four seasons. But their thinking has shifted in the intervening years, and in an interview last summer with The Hollywood Reporter, Ross promised that "Season four won't be the end. We know what the end is, and we know when it is. [The pandemic] has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story." If they were initially thinking it would be a four-season show, it stands to reason that things might be brought to a final conclusion in the fifth season – or maybe it could even end with a movie that ties up any remaining loose ends.

But the longer the show continues, the more the Duffer Brothers may need to consider implementing a significant time jump to their narrative. The once-young stars of this show are growing older and taller by the day, and it won't be long until they've aged far beyond their characters' intended ages.

Stranger Things 4 does not have a release date yet, but it's looking like it won't premiere until sometime in 2022.