Hopper’s Arc In Stranger Things Season 2 Is Very Different

Without a doubt, one of the biggest hits last year, in any medium, was Stranger Things. Netflix’s sci-fi/horror series came from seemingly nowhere and took the world by storm, hooking viewers almost instantly with its gripping and intriguing mysteries and likeable characters. Not to mention all the nods and references it made towards classic ’80s properties. As such, it was no surprise when a second season was announced for October of this year.

Pegged for a Halloween premiere on Netflix, word is that the show’s next outing is more horror-oriented than the first, while composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein have been busy teasing an extended stint in the Upside Down – presumably to rescue Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, Eggos and all. But for all of the Stranger Things coverage currently littering the Internet, there are precious few details out there regarding the actual story arc of season 2.

That’s not too surprising, either, as apparently, the show is taking a page out of the Game of Thrones playbook when it comes to keeping plot details under wraps. And while they have been doing a pretty good job of preventing stuff from leaking, the cast and crew have now begun to open up a bit on what to expect. Or at least, they’ve begun to open up as much as they possibly can when it comes to a show as shrouded in secrecy as Stranger Things is.

Quite recently, we got a bunch of new details on Sean Astin’s character, Bob Newby, who seems like an ordinary enough guy on the surface but probably has some sort of troubled past. And speaking of troubled pasts, we’re now learning a bit more about what to expect from Jim Hopper when the show returns.

While speaking with THR, actor David Harbour noted how Hopper’s arc in season 2 is going to be very different, mostly thanks to the “heroic journey” he went on.

“He’s a different man than he was in season one and he gets to go on a different arc. The first season he really sort of discovered why he was dead inside and like how he was finding his way out and he kind of came to life. And so in the second season, his arc is very different,” said Harbour.

“We start with a man who has sort of become heroic in a certain way, right? I mean he still has some of his stuff but he has gone on this heroic journey and now sort of the beginning of the [first] episode, we start examining the perils of what it is to be a hero or perhaps the fantasies that you have about yourself and the dangers of that. And that subtle arc takes him in a different direction which, I think, is equally satisfying but very, very different.”

The second season of Stranger Things will haunt Netflix this Halloween. Additional seasons of the Netflix phenomenon are reportedly in the mix, too, but if you’re harboring fears that Things might overstay its welcome, don’t; co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer have plans in place for a five-season arc, which would put the Netflix original on course for a finale in 2020/2021.