Here's Why David Harbour Thinks Jopper Fans Will Be Thrilled With 'Stranger Things 3'

There's only a few hours left until Strangers Things fans get to return to Hawkins, Indiana, and while there's still a great evil for the characters to face, it seems as if love might be in the air as well. And David Harbour's new teases about Stranger Things 3 will make Jopper fans very happy.

While speaking with E! News ahead of the premiere on July 4, Harbour revealed that the new episodes will bring his character, Hopper, and Joyce (Winona Ryder) much closer together, as the sheriff begins to lean more and more on his friend as he deals with raising a teenage daughter. "It freaks him out," Harbour said about the blossoming romance between Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard). "He's sort of thrust into the world of this very good, single mother who's really done it well."

"He's really looking for advice and as that progresses, they've known each other a long time," he continued. "[Hopper and Joyce have] gone through their ups and downs … so there's a lot of history there to be explored. I think, for Jim, certainly he's trying to become the man that maybe he lost for a while."

While he — obviously — can't share very much about what will go down in Season 3, this is far from the first time that Harbour has teased a potential romance between Hopper and Joyce. In June, the actor outright told Jopper fans everywhere that the upcoming season would finally bring them the romantic moments they've been waiting for. "There will be a lot of content for you this season," he told shippers in a conversation with TheWrap. "Your thirst will be quenched, as the kids say."

Harbour also confessed that he's delighted by the fan reaction to Joyce and Hopper's relationship, especially since a large population of the shippers are teenagers. "It’s really sweet. Actually, it’s one of the things I so love is that 'ship-of-Jopper' thing," he explained. "There’s all these fans that are like 12 and 13 and they’re very interested in a middle-aged couple getting together. [It’s] confusing to me, but also really sweet and beautiful."

While the actor's comments seem to all-but-confirm the fact that Joyce and Hopper will finally find love in the midst of terror, fans shouldn't expect the road to romance to be a smooth one. "There may be other people in the mix in this situation, but I think they're built for each other and I would love to see them get together," he said at a screening of Season 2 back in August 2018, according to Variety.

He continued, "from the very beginning, I thought that these are two tortured, messed up, beautiful people who are like puzzle pieces that can't stand each other but actually need each other."

While it remains to be seen what exactly will happen between Hopper and Joyce, it does seems as if fans will get to see a softer, more loving side of the fan favorite sheriff. "I think we'll start to see him take more risks with these new languages of intimacy and vulnerability and maybe we'll start to see that he has needs that he hasn't expressed before," he told TV Guide recently.

Well, nothing brings people closer together than learning to navigate the treacherous waters of raising teenagers — well, that and knowing that there's a bloodthirsty monster lurking in the shadows.