‘Stranger Things’ May Have Killed off One of Its Major Characters

Stranger Things Season 3 has been out for nearly two weeks, and fans who have already binged the season are wondering if it may have killed off one of its major characters. The new season debuted on July 4, and starts during the mid-summer with the gang are enjoying time off from school. Dustin eventually arrives home from summer camp and greets his best friend, Steve, who is now working at a mall ice cream shop. Eleven and Mike’s romance is in full-swing, which is often a point of contention for Hopper, who is Eleven’s adopted dad.

Warning: Stranger Things Season 3 Spoilers Below

Sadly, at the end of the season’s final episode, an explosion appears to have claimed the life of Hopper, who was trying to help Joyce and Murray stop a secret Russian operation intent on reopening the portal to the Upside Down.

However… during a post credits scene set in what appears to be a Russian research facility/prison, a guard is heard referring to an unseen prisoner as “the American,” which seems to imply that Hopper is, in fact, alive.

Unfortunately, fans may not know for sure until the series’ fourth season debuts sometime in the future.

Ahead of the new season, Jim Hopper actor David Harbour spoke with The Philadelphia Inquirer about it and shared some non-spoiler thoughts on what fans could expect from it.

“One of the most profound things about the show in general, and it’s not even acting or writing or anything, is to watch these kids grow up in real time,” he admitted. “That’s what I’m struck most by, like I remember Finn Wolfhard’s little fat face when [the show began]. And now he’s like a big old rock star with chiseled features.”

“Television in general is, you become a commodity. The model is Gilligan’s Island. Gilligan 10 years later is always going to be on the island. He’s always going to be wearing a red shirt, he’s always going to be trying to get off the island. And I think the problem with a show about kids is that the kids are gonna grow up,” he added.

“And instead of having it be a problem, instead of having it be a liability, to acknowledge that, to make it a part of the fiber of the show, I think it’s very sophisticated and it’s very profound,” So when I watch the show, I think I cry more deeply as a result of that than anything else. It’s the passage of time that is the truest villain of anyone’s life,” Harbour continued, then joking, “It’s worse than any Demogorgon.”

Netflix subscribers can watch all three seasons of Stranger Things anytime on the streaming service.