Credit: Marvel StudiosDavid Harbour has to flex his acting talents by starring as two characters simultaneously.
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Stranger Things might be one of Netflix’s biggest hits on the streaming platform, but the series is coming to a close, with Season 5 promising to finish the story. Vecna may have been defeated, but Hawkins is under attack from the Upside Down, meaning that the whole crew will, for once, finally be together trying to take down Vecna.
Hopper is a fan-favorite character who spent more time in Russia in Season 4, leaving fans excited to see him finally back with the old crew for Season 5. While Season 4 was released not long ago, Harbour is prepping to go back for filming, but it will be at the same time as he films his role for an MCU movie.
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Fans might know the actor more for his role as Hopper in the Stranger Things franchise, but the actor did make a push into the MCU with Scarlett Johanson’s Black Widow (2021). While working for the Red Room, Harbour served as Romanoff’s father and was Russia’s version of Captain America, Alexie/The Red Guardian.
The Red Guardian’s fate was left unknown after Black Widow, but the movie took place years ago in the MCU timeline, meaning that the character might be very different when he appears next in The Thunderbolts (2024).
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Not every actor can do this, mainly because the studios wouldn’t allow this to happen, but Harbour explains in an interview that Netflix and Marvel made a deal to allow the actor to film each day in both projects simultaneously since they are both being filmed in the same city:
“It’s going to have to be a back-and-forth with me. They’re going to have to sort of share me. And so it is kind of like, I don’t know exactly how they’re working it, but it’s a week on, week off, two weeks on, two weeks off, something like that where I would go back and forth. They both are being shot in Atlanta. That may have also been structured in a certain way, but yes, it is helpful. So I can just literally shoot a scene in Stranger Things and get in my car and run over to the Marvel scene to shoot a scene there maybe.”
This isn’t going to be easy for Harbour, but he is staying optimistic and hopes to find inspiration for playing both roles and have his creativity shine in his acting:
“Hopefully, the idea will be because of these limitations, you have to shoot these two characters back-to-back, you [can] use that as inspiration. It’s like, what can I do that’ll be really cool for Hopper and really cool for Alexei that’s going to be able to do these things in tandem, and I’m going to try to get real creative, we’re all going to try to get real creative about it and come up with something real cool. But it definitely is a factor. You don’t have just blank slate creativity. You have to think strategically.”
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Filming hasn’t begun yet, so there’s time for one of the projects to be delayed, but it seems that Marvel and Stranger Things will demand a lot from the actor. Unfortunately, the Red Guardian’s beard probably won’t be included in The Thunderbolts, as Stranger Things might need the actor to only have stubble for the series.
This could make some MCU fans feel like they are seeing Hopper instead of the Red Guardian since both characters have dealt with Russians in some capacity, leaving more overlap. Fans who may have missed watching Black Widow might assume that Hopper found a way to be in the MCU, but time will tell how Harbour’s appearance will affect both projects.
Do you think this plan will work for David Harbour? Let us know what you think!