David Harbour’s vanishing act: As Netflix star ‘disappears’ from Stranger Things’ finale trailer and is slapped with bullying complaints from Millie Bobby Brown, is beloved character Jim Hopper about to crash out of favour?

He’s been one of the fan-favourites in hit Netflix series Stranger Things since he made his debut as Police Chief Jim Hopper back in 2016.

From saving the day against the creatures of the Upside Down to becoming a doting dad to Millie Bobbie Brown’s Eleven, and even getting wrapped up in a love story with Winona Ryder’s Joyce, there’s been plenty of opportunity for fans to get behind him.

But David Harbour appears to be falling out of favour when it comes to the sci-fi hit, as he ‘disappeared’ in many of the scenes of the final trailer last week, and was hit with ‘bullying’ complaints.

Over the weekend it was alleged there had been claims David, 50, had ‘bullied and harassed’ his co-star Millie, 21, who first played main character Eleven in the series aged just 12.

The Mail on Sunday reported how the actor is said to have faced an internal enquiry after the British actress allegedly complained about his behaviour towards her.  

A source said: ‘Millie Bobby Brown filed a harassment and bullying claim before they started shooting the last season. There were pages and pages of accusations. The investigation went on for months.’

David was supported through the ordeal by ex Lily Allen, who last month released an album that claims he cheated on her multiple times during their marriage. 

A source added: ‘Lily supported him throughout it all. It was a brutal time.’

It meant that Millie had a personal representative with her on set while filming the final series, which will start airing in the UK and US later this month, and is destined to be one of Netflix’s most-watched shows ever.

Fans were left up in arms predicting that the accusations, and the fall out of David’s divorce in the public eye, could spell for him going missing from scenes. 

One penned: ‘Guessing we will see very few scenes of Millie and Harbour together this last season which sucks because their characters relationship is supposed to serve as the heart of the show…’

Another agreed: ‘His storyline essentially silo’d him away from most of the rest of the cast…’

The streamer is so convinced the final season will be a massive hit that it is releasing the finale in two parts with the second ‘drop’ on Netflix over Christmas.

The final episode is being released in cinemas on December 31 as well as on the streaming service, who declined to comment on the investigation. 

It’s all been terrible timing for David, whose personal woes hit the global headlines just as the worldwide press tour for the series kickstarted with singer Lily, 40, releasing her first album since 2018. 

West End Girl, which was released just days before the final Stranger Things cast posters dropped on social media, details the ins and outs of the couples’ split. 

Much of the focus was drawn on song Madeline, which detailed David’s alleged infidelity with a secret lover, who The Daily Mail exclusively revealed as costume designer Natalie Tippett.

It sent the internet into meltdown as online sleuths scrambled to piece together the unravelling of the duo’s romance, and what had caused it. 

Lily’s songs have been streamed more than eight million times worldwide on Spotify since it was released ten days ago, while the album already sits at the top of the UK iTunes album chart.

A number of the show’s fans noted that the ‘brutal’ break-up album had been released just days after the Stranger Things’ press tour kicked off.

Earlier this month it was confirmed the show cast would be travelling to Lucca, London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Toronto, New York, and more as part of the tour. 

The tour will include a world premiere of the series in Los Angeles on November 6.

Taking to X after Lily released the album, a number of show fans revealed they thought it was no coincidence the album had been released at the same time as the Stranger Things press tour began.

One penned: ‘Lily Allen releasing West End Girl around the time David Harbour is going to start press for Stranger Things S5…’ as a second added: ‘David is about to have the most miserable press tour.’

A third noted: ‘David Harbour turning comments off on all his Instagram posts.’

An insider also agreed, with a source close to the pair revealing earlier this month: ‘The album seems very deliberately timed to undermine David ahead of the Stranger Things finale.

‘It was hugely emotional for him and the cast to bring this story to an end, and it is something he is very proud of.’

The global hit culminates with a two-part final series, the first episodes of which are released on November 27.

The source continued: ‘But there is no way that he can now be part of the press tour while this is going on, it would be an utter embarrassment. 

‘It must be devastating for David that he is unable to fully participate in the final chapter of the show that made him famous.’

Following the album’s release, David scarcely featured in the final tailer, despite viewers of the Emmy Award winning series hoping to see more of him in series five.

He made just two appearances across the three-minute long teaser. 

While a second snapshot appeared to feature the same scene, with both David and Millie in the same outfits, inside a suspicious looking laboratory. 

It marks a stark contrast to the show’s fourth season, which dedicated a storyline to character Hopper, who had been imprisoned in Russia and was planning an escape.

Hopper, who has clocked up the same amount of screen time as main characters Mike and Nancy Wheeler across the four previous seasons, was reunited with on-screen daughter, Millie’s Eleven, in emotional scenes at the end of the series. 

Winona Ryder, who plays Hopper’s love interest Joyce Byers, also only makes a singular appearance in the final trailer alongside Finn Wolfhard’s Mike Wheeler. 

The couple’s pal Murray Bauman, played by Brett Gelman, also only features once, alongside Maya Hawke’s Robin Buckley. 

And Karen Wheeler, played by Cara Buono, is only seen in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flash, with her head turned away from the camera. 

Even fan-favourite character Steve Harrington, portrayed by actor and musician Joe Keery, is only seen twice during the trailer. 

Since the release of Lily’s album, David has been appearing to be hiding from public life, having turned off the comments on his social media pages. 

Lily and David announced their split in January after just over four years of marriage.

It is understood they separated in December, and that Lily spent Christmas alone with her children in Kenya, 3,000 miles from David.

Speaking on her Miss Me? podcast with her long-time friend, presenter Miquita Oliver, that month, she admitted that she was taking ‘time out’/

She said: ‘I’m finding it hard to be interested in anything. I’m really not in a good place. I know I’ve been talking about it for months, but I’ve been spiralling and spiralling. 

‘It’s got out of control. I can’t concentrate on anything except the pain I’m going through. It’s really hard.’

A source claimed that the singer was ‘devastated’ and had reportedly checked into an £8,000-a-week trauma treatment centre after telling friends she was close to a nervous breakdown.

She also gave an interview to British Vogue this month in which she discussed how hard it was not to rely on ‘drugs and alcohol’ to get through the split.

Meanwhile Harbour, asked about the split by GQ magazine in April, declined to reveal much, saying it would encourage ‘a salacious s***-show of humiliation’.

The Mail on Sunday reported earlier this year that Lily had turned detective after suspecting David of cheating on her.

The singer’s circle of London friends said she had believed since last autumn that her husband was interested in other women.

The couple, who had met on the celebrity dating app Raya, had disabled their profiles following a whirlwind romance, but Lily decided to re-join the app to check on her husband’s activity – and discovered he had a secret profile which had been active.

In it, he describes himself as ‘visiting New York from Atlanta’ and a ‘closet nerd that plays tough guys on your TV’. 

A source said at the time: ‘Lily was looking for women that were on Raya and cross-referencing them with women David follows on Instagram to try to figure out who he was seeing.’

The couple shared a townhouse in Brooklyn, New York, with Lily’s children after the couple moved there in 2020. She had enrolled her daughters in local schools.

Harbour also bought a home 800 miles away in Atlanta to be closer to the Stranger Things filmset, where he was filming the fifth and final series last year.

Stranger Things returns to Netflix on November 27.