All is not well in Hawkins, Indiana—not least of all because one of Stranger Things’ most beloved actors has reportedly sparked a sprawling internal investigation by Netflix into claims of bullying and harassment on the set.
David Harbour, 50, has been hit with allegations that he harassed the show’s breakout star, Millie Bobby Brown, 21, just as Stranger Things is about to reach its oxygen-sucking conclusion.
Netflix is estimated to have spent more than $400 million on the upcoming eight-episode run that will conclude the hit series. However, it has now been claimed that filming for the final season was hampered by these allegations.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Brown filed a “harassment and bullying claim” before season 5 began shooting in January of last year. According to the paper, “the allegations did not include claims of sexual impropriety.”
“There were pages and pages of accusations,” a source told the Mail. “The investigation went on for months.”
Harbour plays ex-police chief Jim Hopper, who adopts Brown’s character, the psychic child test subject known as Eleven. The pair’s rocky father-daughter relationship is a central theme of the show, and they share significant screen time.
Owing to the allegations and their strained professional relationship, however, Brown allegedly had a personal representative with her on set during shooting for the final season.
The news comes as Harbour faces backlash following the breakdown of his marriage to British singer Lily Allen.
West End Girl, Allen’s first album in seven years, is currently dominating streaming platforms and online conversations as it graphically charts a series of betrayals by her ex-husband during their four-year marriage.
However, the workplace bullying claims are not thought to be part of the relationship breakdown between Allen and Harbour.
“Lily supported him throughout it all,” the Mail’s source said. “It was a brutal time.”
Brown, who rose to fame on Stranger Things, went on to star in feature films like Enola Holmes and Damsel. She married fellow actor Jake Bongiovi, son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi, in 2024. The pair—who live on a farm in Georgia, where they run an animal sanctuary—adopted a baby girl in August.
Stranger Things, a 1980s-set, coming-of-age drama, premiered in 2016 and co-stars Winona Ryder. It has made household names out of the rest of its relatively unknown ensemble cast, including Finn Wolfhard, Joe Keery and Natalia Dyer.
The show, created by Matt and Ross Duffer—a.k.a. The Duffer Brothers—is one of the most watched and critically acclaimed of the 21st century. Viewers watched a record-breaking 286 million hours of season 4 within three days of its release in 2022.
Stranger Things’ season finale will be released in three parts, with the first four episodes to drop on the streaming platform on Nov. 26, the following three on Christmas, and the final, two-and-a-half hour episode released in cinemas and on Netflix on New Year’s Eve.
The Daily Beast has contacted Netflix as well as Brown and Harbour’s representatives for comment. Neither Netflix nor Harbour’s representatives responded to The Mail’s own requests for comment.
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