Everyone's favorite franchise dad is going to be pulling double duty next year. Ahead of the premiere of his new holiday thriller, Violent Night, David Harbour sat down with Collider's Editor-in-Chief, Steve Weintraub. While they got up to plenty of Christmas mischief, Weintraub also made sure to ask the Stranger Things breakout star about the upcoming fifth and final season of Netflix's epic sci-fi series, as well as the hotly anticipated Thunderbolts movie coming in 2024. After the MCU anti-hero film was announced at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel revealed that Harbour would be reprising his role as the chaotic, yet lovable, Red Guardian.
With a 2024 release date already on the map for Thunderbolts, and Stranger Things expected to begin filming shortly after writing on Season 5 concludes, it looks like Harbour is already booked and busy for most of 2023. Naturally, Weintraub asked the actor how he feels about his packed schedule, with such big franchises both demanding his attention. "Yeah, next year is going to be a very tough year for me schedule-wise," Harbour said. Though he went on to say "it's going to be crazy," luckily for Harbour, he's very passionate about both projects. "They are two things that I love. I love both characters very much," he told Collider.
Where Will Thunderbolts and Stranger Things Season 5 Be Filmed?
In fact, Harbour revealed that he's very lucky indeed, as both projects are set to film in the same place at the same time. Harbour explained:
"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."
While Harbour will have little to no trouble going from the set of Stranger Things to the Thunderbolts set, the actor did admit that he's got "facial hair conundrums." In Black Widow, Harbour's Alexei sports a full beard whereas when we last saw him in Stranger Things, Hopper was clean-shaven, with little more than a bit of stubble following his stint in a Russian prison — though he is known to sport a Magnum P.I.-style mustache from time to time. Though both characters have decidedly different looks, Harbour went on to explain that it shouldn't be an issue as long as both productions are strategic about it. He said:
"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."
Season 5 of Stranger Things does not yet have a release date, but you can stream Seasons 1-4 right now on Netflix. Thunderbolts is slated to hit theaters on July 26, 2024. Check out our interview with Harbor for Stranger Things Season 4 down below, and be sure to check out our full conversation with Harbour on all things Violent Night, Stranger Things, Thunderbolts, and more!