Billy Crudup was the Duffer Brothers’ first choice to play Chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things — a role that ultimately went to David Harbour after Crudup passed, the creators revealed in a new podcast interview that answers a question Harbour himself had been asking for years.
Matt and Ross Duffer made the disclosure during a live recording of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, after Harbour submitted a pre-recorded video question. The actor admitted he long suspected he was not the original pick. “I’m pretty sure I was second choice, and I don’t know who I was second choice to — maybe I was third choice?” Harbour said in the clip. He asked the brothers to finally settle the question.
When Horowitz guessed Josh Brolin — pointing out that Brolin is a close friend of Harbour’s — Matt Duffer quickly shut it down. “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,” he said. “But yeah, Billy Crudup passed. I don’t think he was doing much TV at the time.”
The contrast between the two actors is striking. Crudup built his reputation as a film actor, known for roles in Almost Famous, Watchmen, and Big Fish, and had not established himself in long-form television when Stranger Things was being cast. He has since become a fixture on the small screen, winning two Emmy Awards for his role as Cory Ellison on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.
Harbour’s path to Hopper was far less deliberate. Ross Duffer recalled that a casting director flagged Harbour as a candidate, and the brothers watched his audition on tape without being in the room. “It was just so clear, instantly: This is Hopper. And we just cast him right then and there,” Ross said.
Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in 2016 and concluded its five-season run in 2025, winning a dozen Emmy Awards over its run. Hopper became Harbour’s signature role, earning him two Emmy nominations and cementing a father-daughter dynamic with Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven that anchored the show’s emotional core. The franchise has since expanded into an animated spinoff, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, which Netflix recently renewed for a second season, and a Broadway prequel production slated for a future feature release.
