Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators of Stranger Thingsshot a “terrible” plot idea that David Harbor and Winona Ryder once pitched for their characters. Harbor and Ryder, which originally premiered on Netflix in 2016, lead a talented ensemble cast including small-town police chief Jim Hopper and struggling single mother Joyce Byers. When Joyce’s youngest son suddenly disappears and a mysterious young girl escapes from a nearby laboratory, Hawkins quickly finds herself at the epicenter of a series of increasingly strange and disturbing events.
As expected Stranger Things season 5, Harbor recently appeared at Canada’s Calgary Expo convention (via ComicBook.com), where he talked about a scandalous theory about Hopper and Joyce’s backstory that he had worked out with Ryder. Drawing up a timeline that suggested Joyce’s eldest son Jonathan (played by Charlie Heaton) could have been Hopper’s illegitimate love child, the actor revealed he approached the Duffer brothers with the idea, only to be shot down in no uncertain terms . Check out his comments below:
I love this theory, Wynona and I both love this theory. It’s something about how Hopper went to Vietnam and we found out a timeline where Lonnie couldn’t have been Jonathan’s father. They broke up, Lonnie was in the picture for a while, and I guess they dropped out between one of Hopper’s tours in Vietnam. He came back and just brought a pie to Joyce’s house one day and they conceived Jonathan, then she got back together with Lonnie and never told him. And so the secret is that Jonathan is Hopper’s child, and that’s why in the first season there’s a lot of male bonding between me and Jonathan.
We had developed the whole thing regarding [Joyce and Hopper] which I really liked. I brought it up to the Duffers and I thought, “Maybe we should put this on the show.” And they said, ‘No, it’s terrible.’
Will Stranger Things season 5 give Hopper and Joyce a happy ending?
Over the past four seasons, the blossoming romance between Hopper and Joyce has encountered its fair share of setbacks. Just when things finally seemed to be turning around for the couple, their future together was hampered by Hopper’s presumed death in Season 3 and subsequent incarceration in a Soviet prison. While Stranger Things In the Season 4 finale, the two characters were finally reunited and back on American soil, their joy quickly put aside as the Upside Down began to break through in the township of Hawkins.
After years of placing increasingly difficult obstacles in front of the two characters, many of the show’s avid viewers are eager to see if Hopper and Joyce can finally get their chance to be a happy couple. While the pair’s emotional reunion in Season 4 paid off their long-standing, will-they-won’t-they chemistry, it’s unlikely the Duffer brothers intend to take things easy for the two. With the stakes heading into Season 5 higher than ever, there will likely be little time for Hopper and Joyce to explore their relationship in a more traditional sense.
Although Harbor and Ryder ultimately failed to convince the show’s creators to include their own ideas in the show, Hopper and Joyce’s relationship has always been plagued by the complexities of their respective pasts. Furthermore, the couple also tends to argue more often than not, and any attempt at a long-term relationship will require significant compromise on both sides. About Stranger Things season 5 will finally give them a chance to overcome these yet-to-be-seen issues, but it’s likely that their quest for happiness will still have many more obstacles to face.
Source: Calgary Expo (via ComicBook.com)