David Harbour Says It’s ‘Bittersweet’ to ‘Let Go’ of “Stranger Things”: ‘I Just See All These People That I’ve Loved’ (Exclusive)

David Harbour is getting candid about the ending of Stranger Things.

The actor, who has played Jim Hopper on the Netflix hit since 2016, caught up with PEOPLE at the premiere of the fifth and final season in Los Angeles on Thursday, Nov. 6. Seeing the cast and crew come together at the event, which took place at the TCL Chinese Theatre, was “bittersweet,” Harbour says.

“It’s beautiful. The fans, the people that love the show, what we’re trying to do this season, how we really want to pay it off, we really want to tell this story,” Harbour says.

He adds, “And then at the end of it, it’s also like I just see all these people that I’ve loved and known so deeply for 10 years and we have to move on and let go. And that is life.”

As for the trajectory of his career since boarding the cast, Harbour shares that “none of that would be happening without this role.”

“This role changed the landscape. It was like an earthquake in my life,” he says. “I mean, we shot that season. I loved it. It was so simple and kind of low budget when it started and then people just fell in love with it and really attached to it and it just blew up in a way that I never imagined.”

“And so in terms of opportunities to tell stories and to create art, I think it’s given me more than any other role in my life for sure,” he continues.

Harbour had flown straight to the red carpet from filming his new movie, Evil Genius, directed by Courteney Cox and co-starring Patricia Arquette. It follows a busy streak for Harbour: he recently wrapped another film, Violent Night 2 and is starting production on Behemoth!, opposite Pedro Pascal, next.

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Harbour arrived at the season 5 premiere alongside costar Millie Bobby Brown, as the pair laughed and hugged each other on the red carpet while posing for photos together. Netflix posted a video of the actors’ interaction, captioning it with the holding-back-tears emoji.

Harbour’s embrace with his Stranger Things on-screen daughter came days after a Nov. 1 report from The Daily Mail that Brown “filed a harassment and bullying claim” against Harbour before shooting began on the final season. The subsequent investigation reportedly “went on for months.”

Reps for Netflix, Brown and Harbour have not responded to requests from PEOPLE for comment. Brown and Harbour have worked together since September 2015, when filming for the first season began in Atlanta. 

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Season 5 of Stranger Things begins in the fall of 1987, as Vecna “has vanished” with “his whereabouts and plans unknown,” per an official synopsis. It marks the show’s first iteration since season 4 wrapped in July 2022.

“Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding,” the synopsis continues. “As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.”

Stranger Things season 5 Volume 1 premieres on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix, followed by Volume 2 on Dec. 25, and the finale on Dec. 31.