'Stranger Things Season 4' set photos hint at a beloved character's return

Every Stranger Things fan knows he’s probably coming back. As soon as series mainstay Chief Hopper courageously sacrificed himself to save the day in the Season 3 finale, we knew it wouldn’t last. There is no Stranger Things without Hopper. He’s so integral to the show’s appeal, and while his death was a heartstring puller, nobody really believes he’s gone for good.

The show already teased where he might be in its Season 3 post-credits scene, which depicted a mysterious Russian prison housing an unseen captive known as “the American” (although there are a few possibilities when it comes to who that might be). That’s the thing, really: the question is not so much “will Hopper come back?” as it is “HOW will Hopper come back?”

While we still don’t know the answer to the latter, the former may have just been confirmed. The show’s fourth season is currently filming in Georgia, and a sneaky bystander managed to capture a photo of a very familiar car on set. It’s Hopper’s 1980 Chevy K5 Blazer, the car he drives throughout most of the series. This would seem to confirm the character’s return in Season 4.

Now, there are plenty of other explanations for this, the most plausible being that the car has been passed on to one of the kids who — hard as it may be to believe — are probably going to be old enough to take Driver’s Ed next season. It could also have been given to someone at the police station, or any of the older characters like Steve.

Only time will tell with this one. While we’re pretty confident Hopper will be back in Season 4, we still don’t know how or when it’s going to happen. If we’re feeling optimistic though, we’d say that this bodes well for anyone hoping to see Hopper back in action sooner rather than later.

While there’s no release date confirmed yet, keep an eye out for Stranger Things 4 in late 2020/early 2021.