Millie Bobby Brown & David Harbour's New Netflix Series Is Recreating Stranger Things

Published Nov 8, 2026, 1:00 AM EST

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As Eleven and Jim Hopper, respectively, Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour were the beating heart of Stranger Things, and their upcoming Netflix series is set to recreate that relationship. When the Stranger Things characters were first introduced in season 1, Chief Hopper was a broken man, grieving the loss of his young daughter by drowning himself in booze, while Eleven had just escaped the lab where she had lived as an experiment for her entire life.

Though disparate souls at first, Hopper and Eleven find themselves thrown together as the supernatural threats in Hawkins grow, and in fighting against evil, they become found family. For Hopper, Eleven fills the void left by Sara's passing, while Eleven finally has a father figure who loves her unconditionally, unlike Dr. Brenner, Eleven's "Papa," who exploited her need for parental affection in order to carry out his dangerous experiments.

Stranger Things excelled at unlikely pairings, whether it was cool-guy Steve Harrington and nerdy Dustin Henderson's bromance or the frazzled Joyce Byers' alliance with zany conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman. However, Eleven and Hopper are arguably the best, and it's no surprise that the actors were both nominated for back-to-back Primetime Emmys for their performances. While Stranger Things may have ended, Brown and Harbour will be back with more of their incredible chemistry in another Netflix project.

Millie Bobby Brown & David Harbour Are Set To Recreate Their Dynamic From Stranger Things

Image via Netflix

In June 2026, Netflix announced that Brown and Harbour were cast in a new Netflix series, A Spy in the Blood, loosely inspired by Paul Warner's debut novel. Created by Emmy-winning Adolescence writer Jack Thorne (who also produced Brown's Enola Holmes movies), the currently untitled Netflix series centers on Matt Wolfe (Harbour) a "disgraced FBI agent turned security expert" who is pulled back into the spy world when his estranged daughter Rebecca (Brown), "an FBI agent determined to follow in his footsteps" disappears while on a mission.

The parallels to Eleven and Hopper couldn't be clearer. Like Matt, Hopper is unwittingly pulled into a dangerous world he has no desire to inhabit, though once he and Eleven form their bond, his only priority is keeping her safe. Eleven may not be determined to follow in Hopper's footsteps, but she's certainly determined to use her powers for that good, even if that means defying Hopper's wishes and putting herself in harm's way.

Through Matt and Rebecca, Netflix's A Spy in the Blood could serve as a spiritual successor to Stranger Things. When Hopper first meets Eleven, she's still a little girl, but Brown's character in the new show will be an adult, adding a more complex, mature dynamic between her and Harbour. It'll also be fascinating to see them act in a totally different genre while knowing that the foundation is already there for these two actors to make incredible television together.

A Spy In The Blood Looks Like A Mashup Of Slow Horses & Adolescence

Image via MovieStillsDB

Based on the A Spy in the Blood adaptation's premise, Matt Wolfe sounds like an American version of Gary Oldman's Slow Horses character, Jackson Lamb. Similar to MI5 agent Jackson, Matt is a washed-up former spy who's now working a desk job before being forced to return to his former existence due to extreme circumstances beyond his control.

The key difference between Jackson and Matt are the characters' motivations. Whereas Jackson's are professional, Matt's are entirely personal, and in that regard, A Spy in the Blood is more like Adolescence, Thorne's mega-hit Netflix series. Though the catalyst in the series are wildly divergent — Adolescence's Jamie is arrested on suspcion of murdering a female classmate while Rebecca vanishes in the line of duty — both are about fathers trying to save their children from situations too dangerous and scary to fathom.

Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Given the massive success of both Slow Horses and Adolescence, combining the best of both certainly feels like a recipe for a fantastic new series. And if we've learned anything from Stranger Things, it's that the A Spy in the Blood adaptation has a winning cast in Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour.