It's been a minute since Stranger Things aired THAT epic season four finale. Ending on a major cliffhanger, the town of Hawkins was left reeling from an "earthquake" (which is really code for Vecna opening the gateway to the Upside Down). As Eleven, Mike and the gang watched as their beloved home was consumed with ash and bolts of lightning falling from the skies, the Netflix show quickly cut to credits, leaving fans desperate to find out what happens next.
But luckily, David Harbour – aka Hawkins' resident sheriff Jim Hopper – is easing the drought and shedding some light on the fifth and final series. While Stranger Things is currently on hiatus due to the writers' and actors' strikes, the cast has already received the scripts, and David even knows how the show will end.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, which was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike, the actor said of the scripts: "Before the strike we were sent scripts, they're terrific, as per usual. They continue to outdo themselves, these currently-on-strike writers called the Duffer Brothers."
Promising an epic season five, he explained: "It's a hell of an undertaking, too. I mean, the set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we've done in the past".
Revealing that the fifth instalment will pick up shortly after the events of the season four finale, David revealed: "After where season 4 ended — when you watch us on that hill looking at the ash and the smoke and fires – we're going to start somewhere after that. So you've got to imagine the world is a different place."
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"And it's great, it'll take a while to shoot which will be tough since we can't get started now but it is what it is. I'm excited to go back. I'm excited to wrap it up in a bold, amazing way. I'm excited to really swing with this character, because you know they're going to pay off these OG characters: Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, Will, Mike; they're going to pay them off in big ways because they've lived with you for the past eight years."
Asked whether he knows about the show's ending, David revealed that while he hasn't read the final script, he knows how the series will wrap up. "I know what it is. I know where we net out and it's very, very moving," he said. "That is the term I will use."
Back in November, Stranger Thing's showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer also opened up about the final season in an interview with IndieWire.
"It's the same thing with [Season] 5: The most important thing for us is to get it right and not rush it," explained Ross Duffer. "If we've made any mistakes with the show, it's been through rushing. I don't want to take forever — you can't because of the kids, we can't take 10 years. So we gotta move at a decent pace. But our priority is to get it right."
As for whether any new characters will be introduced, Matt Duffer replied: "We're doing our best to resist [adding new characters] for Season 5. We're trying not to do that so we can focus on the OG characters, I guess."