‘stranger Things’ Production Responded to On-Set Complaint During Filming of Final Season
Amidst production of its fifth and final season,”Stranger Things” addressed a complaint regarding the on-set conduct of David Harbour,according to reports surfacing in late February 2024. The complaint, initially reported by The Daily Mail, allegedly came from co-star Millie Bobby Brown. Representatives for Brown, Harbour, and Netflix declined to comment when contacted.
The Duffer Brothers, creators Matt and Ross Duffer, and executive producer Shawn Levy addressed the situation indirectly during interviews with The Hollywood Reporter, emphasizing the importance of a safe and respectful environment for the cast and crew. “I’ve read a bunch of stories and thay range from wildly inaccurate to…there’s so much noise around it,” Levy stated. “But the truth is that we view this crew and this cast as family, and so we treat each other with respect, and that’s always been bedrock.” Ross Duffer added, “We’ve been doing this for 10 years with this cast, and at this point they’re family and we deeply care about them. So, you know, nothing matters more than just having a set where everyone feels safe and happy.”
The complaint emerged during a period of heightened public attention surrounding Harbour’s divorce from singer Lily Allen. Allen’s recently released album, “West End Girl,” details allegations of Harbour’s infidelity. Variety‘s Chris Willman described the album as “a divorce record with a capital D,” noting the split followed “five years of marriage that apparently started as a fairy-tale romance for her and ended in the devastation strewn throughout every track on the album.”
Despite the reported complaint, Brown and Harbour continued to film scenes together for Season 5. A Variety reporter observed the pair filming scenes depicting their characters’ father-daughter dynamic during a set visit in July 2024. Throughout the first four seasons of “Stranger Things,” Eleven (Brown) and Hopper (Harbour) have developed a surrogate father-daughter relationship, experiencing friction in Seasons 2 and 3 due to Hopper’s protectiveness, and operating on separate storylines until a reunion in the Season 4 finale.
