Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp: “[Will] is gay and he does love Mike”

Stranger Things has many mysteries: what is the nature of the Upside Down? What does it mean that this dark dimension is now spilling into the real world? Will Max come out of her coma and is Vecna, the guy who put her into it, still out there planning his next move?

All of these are pretty dramatic, but there are some more down-to-earth mysteries as well, such as: Is Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) gay or what? Throughout the fourth season (and the third, to a lesser extent), the show has hinted that Will has feelings for his best friend Mike, but has stopped shy of confirming anything. Giving the series the benefit of the doubt, we can assume it will address this in the upcoming fifth and final season, but it’s kinda weird that it’s kept things under the radar, particularly when the character of Robin (Maya Hawke) is an out lesbian (well, out to the audience, anyway) doing her thing.

Well, Schnapp is here to set aside any ambiguity, spoilers be damned. “I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike,” the actor told Variety. “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.”

"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."

It’s very cool that Will’s story has had that effect on people, although I have my doubts about whether this was planned since season 1. Even Schnapp admits he didn’t know what showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer were doing with the character. “Years ago in season 1, I didn’t know where the Duffers wanted to go with this character. So I was kind of figuring it out along with the audience.” Still, it’s great that this story has been included, especially in a show with such a wide reach.

Key Will-Jonathan scene from Stranger Things was written on the fly

Of course, Will has other things on his mind besides his sexuality; let’s not forget he was kidnapped into the Upside Down in season 1 and possessed by the extra-dimensional Mind Flayer back in season 2, so there’s a lot weighing on him. “It’s this multifaceted trauma that goes years back, because he was taken by the Demogorgon and then his friends, they never acknowledged him, and now he’s scared to come out and doesn’t know if they’ll accept him,” Schnapp said. “And then Eleven is like his sister, but he doesn’t want to hurt her because if he says he likes Mike, that’s gonna hurt her feelings. There’s all these things running in his mind. So I kind of just have to make sure that I’m conveying the depth of all his traumas.”

"In season 2, they were best friends and they were so close, and then obviously Mike has all his eyes on Eleven. Will is dealing with a little bit of jealousy there. He just wants his best friend back and wants it to be like what it was in season 1, when they were playing D&D in his basement. But Mike’s growing out of that and only cares about Eleven right now. I’m interested just to see where the Duffers go with that in season 5, and how they close out that storyline."

At least Will has the support of his brother Jonathan, who shared a very sweet scene with him towards the end of the season. “So this scene was actually not originally written in the script,” Schnapp revealed. “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.” Good call.

"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. 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."

What will happen to Will in Stranger Things season 5?

We don’t know when Stranger Things season 5 is coming, but expectations are high. “The Duffers are saying for next season that they’re going to focus more on Will and build that storyline. I think that’s super exciting,” Schnapp said.

"I called them a few weeks ago and I was like, “What’s your plan with Will? Like, with his sexuality, but also with the Upside Down and all of that?” They have a lot to get to. They’re still working it out, but they have their end goal. There’s so many different things they have to address. 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. 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 work out. So I’m excited to see what happens."

Meanwhile, Schnapp has been drawing attention outside the show as well…

Noah Schnapp ends bizarre Doja Cat beef

A brief recap of this stranger-than-fiction tale: so rap star Doja Cat apparently has a crush on Joseph Quinn, who played Eddie Munson in Stranger Things 4. She contacted Schnapp on Instagram to see if he could put her in contact with Quinn. Schnapp thought the conversation was funny, so he posted it to social media. Doja Cat took offense, and we suddenly had the unexpected feud of 2022 on our hands. (For context, Doja Cat is 26, Joseph Quinn is 29, and Noah Schnapp is 17; the internet definitely came down on Schnapp’s side, with the general consensus being, “It’s weird that you’re asking this minor to hook you up, Doja Cat.”)

That said, Schnapp doesn’t have any hard feelings, squashing this beef before it goes rotten:

"Yeah, I mean, look, I’m super unserious on social media and pretty goofy, so I posted that not thinking too much of it, but obviously it hurt her feelings. So, as I should, I apologized and she was totally okay with it, and was like, “I’m sorry how I reacted.” It was all good. I love her. I’m like the biggest fan of her music, and I told her that. I was like, you’re literally my role model. It’s all good. People make such a big deal out of everything when it’s on the internet, but, like, in reality, it’s like a two minute thing."

It feels good to put this behind us.

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