SAG-AFTRA strike over, David Harbour eager to return to Stranger Things set
David Harbour Tease Stranger Things Filming
With the SAG-AFTRA strike officially over, David Harbour is ready to get back to work on the final season of Stranger Things.
Harbour, who plays beloved curmudgeon Jim Hopper on the hit Netflix show, expressed his excitement to return to the set in a recent interview with Variety. He also relayed a sense of urgency, saying that production could resume in just “a couple of days.”
“I mean, we got to film that last season of Stranger Things, don’t we?” Harbour said when asked what comes first on his post-strike agenda. “I got to be down there, like, in a couple of days. We got to get going — we’re late.”
Harbour’s comments suggest that Stranger Things Season 5 is already behind schedule, which is perhaps understandable given the disruption caused by the strike. However, it also speaks to Harbour and the rest of the cast and crew’s passion for the show and their eagerness to bring it to a close.
David Harbour has also become the new BoxLunch Giving Ambassador and has donated $100,000 to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization.
Harbour made the surprise donation at the second annual BoxLunch Holiday Gala in Los Angeles on Thursday night. He told Variety that he was inspired by the Twitch fundraisers he’s seen online and that he’s not totally against live streaming himself playing video games online for charity.
Harbour also spoke on the significance of the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and what the new contract means for up-and-coming actors. He reflected on the protections for artists secured by the tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP, and how it compares to his experience as a burgeoning young actor in New York in the early 2000s.
“When I started out, there was no protection for artists,” Harbour said. “You could be fired for anything, and there was no residual system. The new contract is a huge step forward for actors, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Harbour’s Ambassadorship with BoxLunch will include multiple fundraising events with video components. He said that the video components will be inspired by the Twitch fundraisers he’s seen online, but he couldn’t say exactly what they would be just yet.
Harbour also spoke about why he’s so passionate about Feeding America.
“I just really like the way [Feeding America] addresses a fundamental issue,” Harbour said. “With all of the rage that is in our society… there’s still this fundamental issue of people going hungry in America that I think doesn’t get talked about a lot in the news.”
Harbour’s donation to Feeding America will help to provide food to people in need across the country. It
So Now, Fans of Stranger Things can expect the final season to be bigger and more exciting than ever, with Harbour promising “hell of an undertaking” and “set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw [that] are bigger than anything we’ve done in the past.”
Stranger Things Season 5 is expected to premiere on Netflix in 2025.
