With David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown in attendance for New York Comic Con’s Stranger Things panel, much of the discussion turned toward what we can expect is in store for both of their characters in season two. What else will we learn about Sheriff Hopper in season two, and how will Eleven factor into his life during the second season?
For starters, when Stranger Things returns, Harbour said we’ll get more details about the death of Hopper’s child. “I feel like with the loss of a daughter like that, I just feel like he’s truly broken in a way that almost cannot be healed,†Harbour said. “In a certain way he has so much guilt because he’s so used to saving people — used to good guys and bad guys — and finally he puts himself in a situation where it’s just life. I mean, there’s just nothing he can do and I think that he takes that on himself and carries it on his shoulders.â€
With Eleven orphaned and rogue in the wilderness and Hopper still living in the emotional wake of losing his daughter, one fan asked if that might be a convenient setup for the two characters to come together as a kind of impromptu family. Harbour reminded the audience that things didn’t exactly end on the up and up between Hopper and Eleven. “We end season one with Hopper actually sort of selling Eleven out, right? He doesn’t know that she’s capable of destroying groups of people but he does kind of give her up to go into the Upside Down to save Will,†said Harbour. “So I think this idea of being around children is a very difficult thing for him. I think it’s a very complex relationship.†But despite the complexities, the last image we see of Hopper in season one is of him depositing provisions in a box in the woods — which includes Eleven’s signature snack, Eggo waffles — and looking wistfully off into the snowy distance. For her part, Brown wouldn’t offer any specific details about Eleven’s future with the good sheriff, but she did promise, “It’s going to be incredible.â€