The Duffer Brothers have revealed that David Harbour was their second choice to play police chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things.
Show creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer opened up about casting Harbour in a new interview on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, where they admitted that another actor had turned down the role before they found Harbour.
Harbour said in a video question played on the podcast: “I’m pretty sure I was second choice, and I don’t know who I was second choice to. Maybe I was third choice? But would you please answer the question of how I came to be cast as Chief Hopper, and who had to say no to allow me to do that wonderful, incredible role.”
After Horowitz wrongly guessed Josh Brolin, Matt revealed: “No, it was Billy Crudup.”
“Which is a very different — like, everything happens for a reason, right? So it’s like, once it kind of clicks into place,” Matt said. “But yeah, Billy Crudup passed. I don’t think he was doing much TV at the time.”
Ross added: “And then David just — honestly — he just came in and one of our casting directors thought he could be great for the role. But he came and read and he just did one take. We weren’t even there; we just saw the tape, and it was just so clear, instantly: This is Hopper. And we just cast him right then and there.”
After Crudup passed on the TV gig, he went on to star on Apple TV’s Emmy-winning series The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Harbour played Hopper, the step-dad figure to Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, for all five seasons of the Netflix series, which launched his career and made him an internationally recognized star.
More of the Duffer Brothers’ original plans for the show previously came to light when their so-called “show Bible,” also known as their pitch deck, emerged in years past.
The creators’ earliest guide to the series showed that the Duffers were looking for an actor like Ewan McGregor or Sam Rockwell for the role of Hopper. They also considered stars like Naomi Watts and Marisa Tomei for the character of Joyce Byers, who was played by Winona Ryder.
Harbour previously said that if Stranger Things were to create a spin-off prequel series, he would pick Euphoria star Jacob Elordi to play a younger version of his character, saying: “He could pull off being as handsome as I was at 20.”
