David Harbour Was Scared That No One Would Watch 'Stranger Things'

It's safe to say that Stranger Things has become a bonafide phenomenon, with fans showing their [...]

It's safe to say that Stranger Things has become a bonafide phenomenon, with fans showing their love for the Netflix series with crochet projects, pop-up bars, and tribute albums. But as it turns out, one of the series' stars was actually expecting the series to fail.

David Harbour, who plays Sheriff Jim Hopper, recently discussed the series' success during an appearance on WTF with Marc Maron. As Harbour revealed, he had a somewhat-cynical outlook on how Stranger Things would be received, and whether or not he would even be a part of it.

"I love that pilot script." Harbour revealed. "I thought it was amazing, and I actually didn't think that I would get cast, and then I wound up getting cast. It's a big Netflix show, you know? I didn't think they wanted to take a chance on me... I don't think they knew [that it would be that big], but still. I didn't know Netflix was doing that many series. Now they're doing everything, but at the time it felt kinda like a big deal."

"But when we were shooting it, about four episodes in, I thought 'Yeah, no one's going to watch this.'" Harbour continued. "I thought, you know, 'I'm not good, and it's not good.' And it didn't help that, we were all working hard, but we were in a bubble. I just thought it was like, you know, in a long line of failures. Not tremendously. I mean, I'm being a little bit hyperbolic. But still."

According to Harbour, this culminated in a pretty interesting way, especially as the series came closer to debuting on Netflix.

"I had grown very cynical." Harbour explained. "But so this was one of those opportunities where my expectations were really low. And then we're in there shooting it, and I do think 'I look like hell.' And so before it came out, I was scared. And then, I was actually doing a play with a guy who was on a very successful TV show. And before it came out, like three weeks before it came out, there were no ads in New York. No ads on buses, nothing. And then a week before it came out, no ads anywhere. I talked to [the actor] and was like 'There's no ads. Is that a bad sign?' And he was like 'They're burying it. They're trying to bury it.' And I was like 'Oh my god. My one fucking shot, and they're burying my show.'"

As anyone in the pop culture world knows, Stranger Things definitely didn't get buried, with a highly-anticipated - and "very different" - third season on the way. And as Harbour suggested, that could have been Netflix's intention all along.

"And then it came out, and it was like a zeitgeist." Harbour added. "They claim now that they did it on purpose, where people claim ownership over it because they discover it and then they tell their friends. And it is kind of brilliant, when you think about it, if that is the case. Because that is what happened."

What do you think about David Harbour's initial outlook on Stranger Things? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The third season of Stranger Things is expected to debut sometime in 2019.

1comments