Noah Schnapp is finally freely opening up about his Stranger Things character Will Byers’ sexuality after many years of speculations that he is gay.
Throughout the Netflix show’s four seasons, fans have been speculating on Will’s sexuality, picking up on things that have been going on in the series and how Will has been acting. In the hit series’ phenomenal fourth season, which just recently dropped, more and more viewers and fans became convinced that he secretly had feelings for his best friend, Mike Wheeler.
Now, in a new interview, Noah at last opened up about his character, confirming:
“Now it’s 100% clear that he is gat and he does love Mike.”
He went on to elaborate:
“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. 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.
I think that’s why so many people come up to me and tell me that they love Will and they resonate with him so much, because it’s such a real character.”
When asked if he avoided directly addressing Will’s sexuality before because he felt that it was a spoiler, Noah said:
“Yeah, I think it is. 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. Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay.
People have come up to me — I was just in Paris and this, like, 40-year-old man came up to me and he was like, ‘Wow, this Will character made me feel so good. And I related to it so much. That is exactly who I was when I was a kid.’ That just made me so happy to hear. They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they’re doing it so well.”
