Noah Schnapp Confirms That "Stranger Things" Character Will Byers “Is Gay” and “Does Love Mike”
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*Spoilers for Stranger Things 4 below!*
Fans who have seen Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) grow up throughout the past four seasons of Stranger Things have noticed that the kid who once survived the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer has struggled to find common ground with his old Dungeons and Dragons crew who have now gone on to have relationships of their own. And the reason why doesn't seem to involve his past other-dimension kidnapping.
With a lack of love interests so far, we are left with the big question — is Will Byers gay? Here's what we know:
After the first batch of season 4 episodes premiered on May 27, viewers began to question whether the teen character is a part of the LGBTQ+ community after he chose gay mathematician Alan Turing as his hero for a school presentation.
Later on in episode 4, Will also makes ambiguous remarks to Mike (Finn Wolfhard) about sharing thoughts and feelings, saying “Sometimes, I think it’s just scary, to open up like that — to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most. Because what if — what if they don’t like the truth?”
And now that the latest installment is complete, Noah is opening up about his character and confirming what we saw all season long: Will Byers is gay.
"Obviously, it was hinted at in season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends? Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing," Noah says, "Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike."
According to Noah, this pining after Mike is nothing new.
"I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike. They’ve been intentionally pulling that out over the past few seasons. Even in season 1, they hinted at that and slowly, slowly grew that storyline," Noah said. "I think for season 4, it was just me playing this character who loves his best friend but struggles with knowing if he’ll be accepted or not, and feeling like a mistake and like he doesn’t belong. Will has always felt like that. All his friends, they all have girlfriends and they all fit into their different clubs. Will has never really found anywhere to fit in. "
Luckily, we do get to see a scene where Will is accepted by his brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) — but Noah revealed that this touching moment almost didn't happen.
"So this scene was actually not originally written in the script. It was only until after I did the scene of me in the van, where they saw me crying and the protectiveness that you see with Jonathan looking in the rearview mirror. They were like, we need a scene with that. So they wrote it as we were filming," he said.
"It’s also very important for people to see that Will is not alone — because all we ever see of him is struggling and feeling depressed and that he can’t be himself," Noah added, "Jonathan is talking to him in code — it’s just the perfect way to tell someone like Will that he cares about him and he accepts him no matter what. I think it was really wholesome."
In a May 30 interview with Variety, Noah had yet to reveal Will's sexuality, saying that he was leaving that decision up to the writers, Matt and Ross Duffer. He added at the time that he "feels like they never really address it or blatantly say how Will is."
“I think that’s the beauty of it, that it’s just up to the audience’s interpretation," he said, "If it’s Will kind of just refusing to grow up and growing up slower than his friends, or if he is really gay.”
Then, co-star Millie Bobby Brown chimed in. “Can I just say, it’s 2022 and we don’t have to label things,” she said, “I think what’s really nice about Will’s character is that he’s just a human being going through his own personal demons and issues. So many kids out there don’t know, and that’s OK. That’s OK to not know. And that’s OK not to label things.”
Schnapp agreed with her sentiments during that interview saying, “I find that people do reach to put a label on him and just want to know, so badly, like, ‘Oh, and this is it.'”
“He’s just confused and growing up. And that’s what it is to be a kid,” Noah said.
While Brown and Schnapp had left Will's sexuality up for interpretation at the time, fellow cast members have previously provided differing viewpoints on the matter. During a promotional video for Netflix Mexico which was posted on May 23, Finn Wolfhard and fellow cast members David Harbour, Winona Ryder, and Caleb McLaughlin are questioned about fan theories for the show, including one that theorizes that Will and Eleven have a secret relationship in California and are hiding it from Mike.
This idea was quickly shot down by Harbour who said “If you’ve been watching the show, you should know that Will is not interested in El,”
He says “He’s interested in someone else in the group,” later adding that “Will wants to be in the basement with Mike playing D&D for the rest of his life.”
Wolfhard further clarified that Will and Eleven’s bond is “like brother and sister” and hints that audiences will “see soon” who Will is “interested” in. That revelation did come during the final two episodes of “Stranger Things” season 4, which debuted on July 1.
As for what's next, Noah has many things he's hoping will happen in season 5. "Obviously, we hope for a coming out scene, and I also want to see them address this connection to the Mind Flayer and how that fits into the world, he said, "And I’ve always been wondering, why was Will the first victim and the first one captured?"
"I just want to see it all tie in and all works out. So I’m excited to see what happens," he said.
Us too, pal — us too!
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