David Harbour on Stranger Things End and DC Creature Commandos

In a previously recorded appearance on Josh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confused promoting Gran Tourismo, the film’s star David Harbour discussed the Stranger Things finale and joining James Gunn’s Creature Commandos for DC Studios. Both projects are currently being paused as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue as studios are dragging their feet.

In the interview, which took place before SAG-AFTRA joined striking efforts, Harbour shared how the strikes were impacting Season 5 of Stranger Things, the highly anticipated final season of Netflix’s blockbuster streaming show. The Duffers were hard at work with scripts along with their team before the strike prompted pencils down in the writers room. However, Harbour did get to read some of the scripts, revealing “They’re terrific, as per usual. They continue to outdo themselves, these currently on-strike writers called the Duffer Brothers. It’s a hell of an undertaking, too. I mean, the set pieces and the things in the scripts that we saw are bigger than anything we’ve done in the past.”

When asked if he could share how soon after season 4’s finale the show intends to pick up, Harbour teased that it would be, “After where season 4 ended”. He continued, “…when you watch us on that hill looking at the ash and the smoke and fires—we’re going to start somewhere after that. So you’ve got to imagine the world is a different place.” But how soon after remains to be seen, the young cast of Stranger Things have already grown into adults. “It’ll take awhile to shoot, which will be tough since we can’t get started yet, but it is what it is,” he said of the reality of the situation. “I’m excited to go back. I’m excited to wrap it up in a bold, amazing way. I’m excited to really swing with this character, because you know they’re going to pay off these OG characters: Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, Will, Mike. They’re going to pay them off in big ways because they’ve lived with you for the past eight years.”

And in regards to if he’s read a version of the Duffers final script, Harbour confirmed, “I have not but I know what it is. I know where we net out and it’s very, very moving. That is the term I will use.” he teased.

Harbour is also set to lead in James Gunn’s animated series for DC Studios Creature Commandos as Eric Frankenstein. A role he’s previously portrayed in the wickedly funny Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein stand-alone special for Netflix, here he’s on board to create another unique version from the mind of Gunn, which we’re excited to see them collaborate on. “It’s a very interesting take on Frankenstein, because one of the great things about Frankenstein is he was sort of raised to be this erudite model of a man, and he still has this weird, inhuman rage and confusion within him. So it was a great character to play—very funny. And James is just like such incredible guy, I’ve always wanted to work for him.” he explained, “I suppose in terms of building this universe, there is a lot of opportunity for, you know, these characters to be all sorts of different iterations. There might be a live thing, there might be a cartoon that might be whatever.

He continued to praise working with Gunn, “What he’s done with that Guardians thing and what he does with character, what he does with different action sequences—it’s just exciting to be a part of that thing with someone starting this thing and someone with such a creative brain.” he discussed adding that they had recorded sessions in the bag for the show. “We did a bunch of them and it was funny as hell. I mean, we were dying in the room and I’m normally pretty serious, I don’t really mess [around] and we were dying. I mean, it’s outrageous.

Harbour’s future currently includes attachments to reprise his role as the Red Guardian in The Thunderbolts, the script he described as “really tight and really great” but gave props to the Marvel Studios team for stopping the shoot as they’re known to restructure story often while filming.

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