“All the People I Loved” (Exclusive)

David Harbor talks candidly about the ending of Stranger Things.

The actor, who has played Jim Hopper on the Netflix hit since 2016, spoke with PEOPLE at the premiere of the fifth and final season on Thursday, November 6, in Los Angeles. “It was bittersweet,” Haber said, watching the cast and crew come together for the event at the TCL Chinese Theater.

“It’s a beautiful thing. The fans, the people who love the show, what we’re trying to do this season, we really want to do that, we really want to tell this story,” Harbor says.

He added, “And at the end of it, you feel like you’ve met all the people you’ve loved and known deeply for 10 years, and we have to move on and let go. That’s life.”

Regarding the trajectory of his career since joining the cast, Harbor said, “None of it would have happened without this role.”

“This role changed my landscape. It was like an earthquake in my life,” he says. “I mean, we shot that season, and we loved it. It was very simple and low-budget when it started, but then people fell in love with it and got really attached to it, and it exploded in a way I never imagined.”

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

Harbor went straight to the red carpet straight from filming her new movie Evil Genius, directed by Courteney Cox and co-starring Patricia Arquette. Harbor recently finished filming another movie, Violent Night 2, and has started production on Behemoth!, which he will be co-starring with Pedro Pascal.

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Harbor arrived at the Season 5 premiere with co-star Millie Bobby Brown, and the two posed for photos together on the red carpet, laughing and hugging each other. Netflix posted a video of the actors’ interaction, captioned with an emoji holding back tears.

Harbor’s hug with her Stranger Things star daughter came just days after the Daily Mail reported on Nov. 1 that Brown had “made allegations of harassment and bullying” against Harbor before filming began on the final season. The ensuing investigation reportedly “continued for months.”

Representatives for Netflix, Brown and Harbor did not respond to requests for comment from PEOPLE. Brown and Harbor have been working together since September 2015, when season 1 began filming in Atlanta.

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According to the official synopsis, Season 5 of Stranger Things begins in the fall of 1987, with Vecna ​​”missing and her plans unknown.” This will be the first iteration of the show since season 4 ended in July 2022.

“To complicate their mission, the government places the town under military quarantine and intensifies the search for Eleven, forcing her to return to her hiding place,” the synopsis continues. “As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, a familiar, heavy fear sets in. The final battle looms, and with it comes a darkness more powerful and terrifying than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, everyone – the entire party – must come together one last time.”

The first episode of Stranger Things Season 5 will premiere on Netflix on November 26th at 8pm ET, followed by the second episode on December 25th and the final episode on December 31st.