4 Ways ‘Stranger Things’ Season 3 May Not Be the End for [Spoiler]
The post-credits scene
After the Russians spent the season underneath the Starcourt Mall in Hawkins, we moved to Kamchatka, Russia, in the final scene of the season. There, soldiers walked by cells to fetch one of their prisoners — but “no, not the American” — and bring one down to a cage, where he was joined by a Demogorgan. Who else could “the American” be if not Hopper? However, we do have to wonder how and why the Russians would have him.
He’s in the Upside Down
This is probably the least likely, but could he have jumped into the Upside Down before Joyce closed the door between worlds? After all, we didn’t see any other way for him to escape the blast zone. Maybe he figured going there with only a slim chance of getting back to the real world was better than certain death.
Time travel
There were numerous movie references throughout the season and during key moments, including the two-man rule from War Games. While Steve and Robin were drugged, Dustin and Erica left them in the theater to watch Back to the Future. What if that’s how we’ll at least see Hopper again, through some sort of time travel, whether or not it results in bringing him (dead or not)? After all, they could have been watching any movie during the scene above.
In a world with monsters and powers, anything is possible
This is a show where Eleven can move things with her mind and there are giant monsters (made out of people!) and other worlds. Whether or not Hopper’s dead, there has to be some way to bring him back to his loved ones.
Sorry, he’s really dead
Sadly, this, too, is possible. After all, the series and its characters have said goodbye to him, and we even had that heartbreaking moment in which Eleven read the speech he wrote down.
[Warning: The below and gallery above contain MAJOR spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3.]
Stranger Things viewers celebrated and mourned over the Fourth of July holiday with a new season that possibly saw the end of a fan favorite character.
By the finale of Season 3, Hopper (David Harbour) was seemingly dead. At least, that was how his loved ones in Hawkins, Indiana, were acting as they tried to move on after he was in the blast zone when Joyce closed the door between their world and the Upside Down. As we knew and saw, he should have turned into dust. But while we saw that happen to others in the area, we didn’t see it happen to him, nor did we see any remains or a body.
That means there’s still hope, right?
After all, the post-credits scene strongly suggested that he might still be around, just not in Hawkins. But with co-creator Matt Duffer telling Entertainment Weekly that “you definitely should not assume anything” and the mention of the American “is purposely intended to spark debate,” Hopper might not be the person we don’t see in that scene. After all, it’s what we’re supposed to think, so there’s likely a twist coming there.
Fortunately, that’s not the only way we could see Hopper again, so we’re taking a look at the possible ways he could appear, alive or not, in a potential Stranger Things Season 4 in the gallery above.
Stranger Things, Season 3, Streaming Now, Netflix
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