David Harbour has a very strange reaction to worries about Stranger Things flopping

Everyone now knows Stranger Things as the huge, world-dominating Netflix show that turned a small, spooky Indiana town into a massive global brand. Hawkins merch is everywhere, the cast are super famous, and Millie Bobby Brown “doesn’t even remember” a life before the show. But apparently none of that early success was obvious to the people actually making season one, especially not to David Harbour.

Credit: Netflix

According to the Duffer Brothers, Harbour was not expecting Stranger Things to take off, and that’s apparently “putting it politely”. While the rest of the cast were just excited to be part of a seemingly small sci-fi series, Harbour was spiralling.

Not only did he convince himself the show was going to flop, he locked himself in his apartment, disappeared from the internet and, in easily the most dramatic panic response possible, shaved his head. Genuinely.

“He loved doing the show and he was proud of it,” Matt Duffer told Radio Times. “But he was discouraged by the lack of subway ads Netflix put out.”

Ross Duffer said that none of them were confident, but Harbour was by far the worst: “When we were working on season one, we weren’t expecting there to be a season two, but I would say David Harbour was the least confident that the show would be successful.”

Imagine being so stressed by marketing that you have to disappear and buzz your hair off. Hopper would never.

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Of course, Stranger Things went on to become huge, and Harbour is now one of the most recognisable faces on the platform. With season five arriving soon, four episodes this week, three more on Boxing Day, and a feature-length finale dropping on New Year’s Eve, it’s safe to assume David Harbour won’t be shaving his head out of anxiety this time… at least not because of Stranger Things.

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Featured image credit: Netflix