The Duffer brothers kept the door open three inches for David Harbour.

But while it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Chief of Police Jim Hopper on Stranger Things, series creators Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer revealed they originally offered the role to someone else.

“It was Billy Crudup,” Matt revealed during a live recording of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Which is a very different—like everything happens for a reason, right? So, it’s like, once it kind of clicks into place. But yeah, Billy Crudup passed. I don’t think he was doing much TV at the time, and now he’s doing The Morning Show.”

But while David may not have been the original pick for the prickly, quasi stepdad to Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, once he auditioned for the role there was no going back.

“One of our casting directors thought he could be great for the role,” Ross recalled of David’s casting process. “But he came in and read. He just did one take. We weren’t even there, we just saw the tape, and it was just—it was so clear instantly: This is Hopper. And we just cast him right then and there.”