In the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” Noah Schnapp plays Will Byers and Finn Wolfhard plays Mike Wheeler.
Spoilers for Season 4 of “Stranger Things” are coming up.
In the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things,” Noah Schnapp is breaking down the closet door for his character Will Byers.
The 17-year-old actor has let viewers decide what Will’s tastes are in the past. But after the season’s end was posted on the streaming service, he told Variety that Will is gay and in love with Mike Wheeler, who is also his best friend (played by Finn Wolfhard).
He said that Will’s growing comfort was something that had been hinted at in Season 1. “It was always kind of there, but you never knew for sure. Is he just growing up slower than his friends? Now that he is older, they have made it very clear and real.
“Now it’s clear as day that he’s gay and that he loves Mike,” Schnapp said. “But before, the curve was slow. I think it’s done so well because it’s so easy to just make a character gay out of the blue.”
He also said that the scene where Will’s brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) doesn’t say anything but shows his support for him coming out was added to the script after Matt and Ross Duffer saw him crying in a van, which has become a meme.
“It’s also very important for people to see that Will is not alone because all we ever see of him is that he’s struggling, depressed, and can’t be himself,” he said of Jonathan’s protectiveness seen in the rearview mirror.
“Jonathan is talking to him in code. It’s the perfect way to show someone like Will that he cares about him and accepts him no matter what,” he said. “I thought it was very good.”
Schnapp also said he made up with pop star Doja Cat, who asked him to set her up with his co-star Joseph Quinn in a now-infamous DM exchange that he posted on TikTok. Doja was angry at what he said during their conversation.
“I’m very silly and not very serious on social media, so I posted that without giving it much thought, but it hurt her feelings,” Schnapp said.
“So, as I should have, I apologized, and she was totally fine with it and said, ‘I’m sorry for how I reacted,'” he said of Doja, who reportedly lost nearly 200,000 followers because of how she reacted, while Schnapp gained close to 2 million. “Everything was fine. I love her. I love her music more than anyone.”
