Having been a part of the show from the start and being presumed dead once, should Jim Hopper get a happy ending in Stranger Things?

As Stranger Things heads into its final season, questions are already being asked about who will live and who will die. With many fans calling out the show for the lack of main characters meeting their end in the fourth season, will this change in season 5? Having been presumed dead at the end of season 3, David Harbour’s Jim Hopper is just one of the characters who could face an emotional death in the story’s closing chapter, but having spent a long time thinking that Hopper should die in the series, the actor has recently had a change of heart.

Jim Hopper has been a part of Stranger Things since the first episode. Starting off as a heavy-drinking police chief trying to make sense of odd goings-on in his town, Hopper was a perfect replication of the likes of Alan Pangborn in Stephen King’s Castle Rock set novels. However, the character faced his demons, and demodogs, to start turning his life around take Eleven under his wing as his secret daughter. At the end of the third season, Hopper was thought to have died while helping to close the gate to the Upside-Down, but by the time the fourth season was ready to go, it was clear that this had been a fake-out and Hopper was still alive. Now Harbour has weighed in on how he thinks Hopper’s fate should pan out, telling Variety:

“There were several times I thought he should die. I certainly thought that in the beginning, because he was so destroyed and hell-bent on destruction. Then when it seemed like he went in Season 3, I was happy for him. As he’s being resurrected as the man he wants to become, it would almost be nicer to keep him alive. Let’s see what they choose.”

Related: Stranger Things: Dissecting the Necessity of a Shake-up in Season 5

While Netflix has had its fair share of troubled times lately, with subscriber drop-off and a number of cuts being made to spending, the reported $30 million per episode budget of Stranger Things was money well spent as the series continues to be the streamer’s biggest original IP. The arrival of a supersized fourth season, with over double the runtime of most other seasons, immediately saw the show topping the streaming charts after fans had been forced to wait for three long years to return to the Indiana town of Hawkins and catch up on their favorite characters.

Now with the series heading to its conclusion, talk is turning to where the franchise will go next. The Duffer brothers have clarified that spin-offs have been discussed with Netflix, and one, in particular, is likely to be moving forward. However, what is also apparent is that season 5 of Stranger Things will be the end of the road for many of the characters and storylines from the series, meaning that anything could happen and anyone could meet a definite ending. With filming not expected to get underway until next year, fans will have to wait a couple of years to discover the fate of Hopper and the rest of the gang when the final season rolls out.

Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. As well as keeping up with the lastest entertainment news and writing about it for MovieWeb, he works as a video editor, voice over artist and production designer. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script.