Stranger Things 3: David Harbour Teases Big Changes for Chief Hopper

In just a few days, you’ll be able to celebrate Independence Day by staying in the cool inside of your home to binge-watch Stranger Things 3. After a break that lasted nearly two years, the crew in Hawkins and is coming back with a vengeance to fight the dangers from the Upside Down and most certainly, that team includes David Harbour‘s Chief Jim Hopper.

In the lead-up to the premiere, we spoke with Harbour about Black Widow, Hellboy, and Stranger Things. When it comes to the latter, the upcoming action star teased a pretty big change for his character — both physically and in the form of a massive story arc.

“Well, they can certainly expect a growth in the waistline [laughs],” Harbour jokes. “I certainly am a lot girthier this season than ever. But in terms of emotional growth, yeah. It’s a change. It’s almost like two steps forward, one step back. He’s now at a place where his daughter is growing up. She’s becoming a teenager, and she has a boyfriend, and she likes kissing him, and this all just terrifies Hopper. He really just does not like that at all.”

As many parents could attest to — especially first-time fathers — the constant worrying about his teenage daughter certainly takes a tole. For Hopper, it comes in the form of binge-watching classic mid-80s action shows including Magnum PI and the like, which almost forces him into a mid-life crisis of sorts.

“He’s almost in an even more childish place than he’s been ever, and he sort of plants himself in front of the TV trying to listen in to his daughter while watching Magnum P.I. and eating chips and salsa all day long,” the actor continues. “And so, yeah, he’s in a place of real turmoil, and I think that launches him on this path of how do I deal with change, how do I deal with the fact that she’s growing up, and it launches him on this path of what he needs to rediscover as a man to be able to grow into this new role.”

That said, the changes lead Hopper to go on a story arc the show hasn’t seen before, or as Harbour puts it, “bigger than anything” we’ve seen.

“He goes on a huge journey this season,” teases Harbour. “It’s bigger than anything, and there’s a lot of comedy in that journey, and there’s a lot of silliness, and then, of course, there is that epic Hopper heart that I feel like is in all of these seasons. Whatever he’s doing, if he’s angry or he’s being silly or whatever, being chaotic, there is this very decent man at the core who makes tons of mistakes, but who really wants to do well by the people that he loves and that journey is huge this season.”

Who’s your favorite character on the show so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt!

You can see Chief Hopper and the rest of Hawkins again when Stranger Things 3 hits Netflix on July 4th. The first two seasons of the hit horror show are now streaming.