David Harbor defends Stranger Things ending
The actor looks back on the fate of Eleven and the controversial conclusion of the Netflix series.
Six months later, the conclusion of Stranger Things continues to divide fans. But David Harbor – aka Jim Hopper – takes on the unloved ending.
In a major interview with Variety, the actor fully validates the Duffers’ narrative choices and believes that this epilogue was, according to him, inevitable.
He first explains that the series had to end at some point. And after five seasons, it was time:
“At a certain point, we run out of stories to tell. We had explored these characters as far as possible, and we began, in a subtle way, to repeat patterns…”
Spoiler alert!
Concerning the destiny of Eleven, the actor is very clear on the direction taken by the creators. For him, the end of the series imposed a form of radical closure, even if some fans had difficulty accepting the young girl’s tragic death:
“A lot of fans prefer to think that maybe she’s gone to Spain or whatever… but from the beginning of the series, we love this little girl, but we can’t have a child with supernatural powers running around in Hawkins. She can’t exist like that. For life in the series to truly return to normal, everything supernatural has to disappear. From the beginning, we understand that she will have to be killed…”
David Harbor loves this ending, but adds a touch of irony that, perhaps, he has it all wrong and that one day a sequel to Stranger Things with Millie Bobby Brown will be announced by the platform:
“People think it’s over… then Netflix needs to increase its subscriptions, and there: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Eleven, the new series!’
Beyond this reading of the ending, the actor also returns to the relationship between Hopper and Eleven, which he describes as a deeply emotional, almost therapeutic bond:
“Between them, it’s a bond that allows us to try to heal a shared trauma. We’re all trying to do that, whether we recognize it or not. These two are like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly…”
