'Stranger Things' creators reveal first choice for David Harbour role

Before David Harbour was Hopper on "Stranger Things," the door was open three inches for another actor to snag the role.

In an episode of the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast released May 18, "Stranger Things" creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed Harbour was not their first choice to play Jim Hopper on the hit Netflix show.

According to the Duffers, they originally offered the part to Billy Crudup, who turned it down. "I don't think he was doing much TV at the time," Matt Duffer explained. The revelation came in response to a question from Harbour himself, who sent in a video message for the Duffers.

"Everyone knows that every Hollywood actor's big break has come as a result of being second, or third, or fourth, or fifth choice," Harbour said, asking, "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?"

Harbour noted he was "pretty sure I was second choice" but didn't know "who I was second choice to." Ross Duffer was shocked that Harbour "wants us to say" the actor who had the role first, and Matt Duffer pointed out he never told Harbour that their first choice was "one of his good friends."

Before "Stranger Things," Crudup and Harbour were costars in the 2012 film "Thin Ice," and Crudup even interviewed Harbour for Interview Magazine in 2014. The article noted the actors met while they were both working in New York theater, and they also worked together on the play "The Coast of Utopia."

"My experience of you was just jealous, envious rage that you were so good at that play, and so much better than me," Harbour joked at the time. "I remember trying to undermine you at every turn. Trying to kill laughs with coughs! It didn't work."

In the end, Harbour was cast as Jim Hopper, the lovable police chief who in the first season of "Stranger Things" investigates the mysterious disappearance of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) and remained one of the show's core characters through the 2025 series finale. Harbour was a working actor for years before the Netflix hit debuted in 2016, but his role of Hopper made him an A-list star.

Harbour has since joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Alexei Shostakov, who he played in "Black Widow" and "Thunderbolts*," and he'll reprise the role in "Avengers: Doomsday."

On "Happy Sad Confused," Ross Duffer said that after Crudup passed on the show, Harbour came in and auditioned, and it was "so clear instantly, this is Hopper, and we just cast him right then and there."

While Crudup may not have been doing much television when "Stranger Things" was being cast, a few years later, he landed a starring role on Apple TV's "The Morning Show." He has since won two Emmys for his role of TV executive Cory Ellison on the series, starring opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston.

Crudup was most recently seen in the Netflix movie "Jay Kelly," in which he played an actor who is bitter that another actor, George Clooney's title character, was cast in a role instead of him.