Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard Touches On Mike’s Fate, Has Big Ideas For David Harbour's Post-Hopper Future

mike on stranger things season 4
(Image credit: Netflix)

Last year was a big one for everyone with a Netflix subscription. After waiting a whopping three years, we finally got to enjoy all that Stranger Things Season 4 had to offer, and, boy howdy, it offered a lot. It was a season like no other, bringing us an impressively terrifying new villain in Vecna, and the near destruction of Hawkins, IN in the finale, which were all perfect ways to lead fans right into the final installment, Stranger Things Season 5. Now, star Finn Wolfhard has touched on his hopes for Mike’s fate, and what he thinks his co-stars, including David Harbour, will be doing in the future.

What Did Finn Wolfhard Say About Mike’s Stranger Things Fate?

Though the fifth season of the sci-fi mega hit gave viewers several standout characters, some of whom were new to the series (R.I.P. and rock on, Eddie Munson), we will always want our core group of teens and adults to succeed and somehow live on after each increasingly dangerous battle with the Upside Down and its many disgusting denizens. So far, Mike has come out of each season relatively unscathed, and while doing an Actually Me interview for GQ, his portrayer was asked if he thought the D&D-loving lad might actually die in Season 5. Wolfhard replied: 

I hope not. Actually, I don’t know, depends when. If it’s like one of those things where it’s like in the first episode, cold open [then] no. If it’s the last episode, Mike saves everyones’ lives and it’s like ‘Oh yeah, Mike!’ You know, like everyone is cheering and shouting ‘yes,’ you know I’d do that. Maybe.

OK, as far as we know, the Duffer brothers are still writing the last season of the show, so it’s completely understandable that the Ghostbusters: Afterlife star would put in a request that his character either survive the final fight, or go out as a miraculous hero. Of course, even if the plan is to have Mike die after saving everyone, I’m sure that would be a bittersweet way to end his time on the show, as is evidenced by Wolfhard’s “maybe” after posing the idea of Mike’s heroics. He continued:

No, I don’t think he will [die]. I mean maybe I should ask the Duffer Brothers because I want to know if I have a job next year.

I think it’s probably incredibly unlikely that Mike will die so early in the next season that Wolfhard will have little to do on the show, even if we do see the teenager’s demise later on. I mean, even Dr. Brenner got a send-off befitting his character’s importance to the show and Eleven, why wouldn’t Mike, as well?

What Did Finn Wolfhard Say About David Harbour?

The actor had plenty of other questions from fans on the internet to answer, including one about his career predictions for his co-stars. He revealed that he thinks Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) is likely to become a “great businessman” or “restauranteur” along with being “an incredible dramatic actor,” while he sees Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin) as “an unbelievable character actor...on Broadway.” As for David Harbour, who has shined every season as the gruff, lovable (now former) police chief Jim Hopper, he has something very different in mind:

David Harbour’s gonna move to the woods and no one’s gonna see him again, he’s gonna live in this weird little shack. When there’s a Stranger Things reunion we’re all going to say ‘Where’s David?’ And someone will say ‘I haven’t seen him in 40 years.’

Wow. Obviously, I don’t know Harbour at all, but I don’t see him as a hermit-in-the-woods kinda guy, unlike Hopper, who (if he didn’t have his job, anyway) basically was that man in the first season. I mean, just look at where the Black Widow and Hellboy actor lives now:

Mr. Wolfhard, sir? No man who’s that excited about a kitchen chandelier and his “bed womb” (Thanks for that, Lily Allen!) is going to retire to the woods and never speak to anyone again. OK?

At any rate, we still have quite a wait ahead of us to see what becomes of Mike, El, Hopper, and all the rest of the gang in Stranger Things Season 5, but you can always relive the adventure so far on Netflix. 

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.