David Harbour says ‘Stranger Things’ young cast made Season 1 a ‘magical’ experience

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: David Harbour, at an FYC event held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Thursday, May 21, shared that working with the young cast of 'Stranger Things' was "just a joy to work with."

He said they were mature enough to understand what they were doing on set and were not guarded while performing. Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper in the series, said the collaboration with the younger actors felt natural and easy.

Back in 2025, Harbour made headlines due to reports of alleged on-set issues involving Millie Bobby Brown. However, both actors later clarified that everything between them was fine.

David Harbour praises ‘Stranger Things’ child stars

Harbour reflected on his experience working with the young cast of 'Stranger Things' Season 1, calling it "just a joy to work with." He made the comments at an FYC event, where he joked that he "learned nothing" from them before going on to praise the group.

He spoke about the child leads, including Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, and Noah Schnapp, among others, saying they “were just enjoyable as hell.”

"They were just a joy to work with, and I had a blast. I look back on that (first) season as just being a miraculous time in my life. Hopper was a very depressed individual; it was really tough to go through the acting of that, but the family we created and the story we were telling, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that enriched by some work that I was doing."

He added, "A lot of kid actors that you work with are very actor-y, and they really know what they’re doing, and part of the strength of the actors that they formed was that, at their essence, Noah and all these little kids were just kind of kids."

David Harbour calls ‘Stranger Things’ Season 1 magical

The actor said Season 5 goes beyond individual characters and focuses more on the creative vision of Matt and Ross Duffer, describing it as something “large and epic in scale and scope and the things that they accomplished cinematically in a TV format, I’ve never seen done before, and I think is to be applauded and celebrated.”

He also joked that his "favorite season" was Season 1 because “I was thinner,” and called the early days of the series a “magical experience.”

Speaking about his character Jim Hopper, Harbour plays the police chief in Hawkins, Indiana. He starts as a tired and cynical cop but later becomes one of the main protectors in the series. He also grows close to Eleven, known as Jane Hopper, and eventually becomes her adoptive father.