The groundbreaking four-season run of Netflix’s ’80s sci-fi series Stranger Things is coming to a dramatic conclusion. Season 4 put our beloved characters and viewers through a series of emotions. The character narrative of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), about whom viewers are particularly worried for sentimental reasons, is one of the many loose ends that will need to be resolved with Season 5. The young actor recently spoke out about Will’s sexuality and what he understands about the impending final season in an interview with Variety.
Typically, when people think of Stranger Things, they think of the group of misfits. Ones who from the first season, have faced off against the terrifying Upside Down monsters created by The Duffer Brothers. Fans have been faithful to these adventurers for four seasons. They have witnessed these characters grow and transform from D&D-obsessed pre-teens to first-year high school students. Will Byers, in particular, has allegedly escaped the writers’ grasp as the show has gone on.
Will’s character has gone through several changes throughout the course of the series. From serving as the major thread that connected all the characters in Season 1 to becoming more or less a footnote in later seasons. While attempting to maintain empathy for his recently adopted sister Eleven, Noah Schnapp explained that Will ultimately navigated his personal identity issues and struggled with growing up and assimilating into high school, a role relatively new to him.
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Will found it challenging to integrate back into his group of friends after he came back from Upside Down. This was mainly because everyone else wanted to spend time with their new girlfriends. “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,” Schnapp said in response to this otherness.
He further added, “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… They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they’re doing it so well.”
Fans were upset when each episode passed without young Will confessing his love for his best friend Mike Wheeler. The demand for representation and the insistence that authors stop skirting the inescapable reality of the LGBTQ+ community is understandable. However, Stranger Things didn’t create a “token” character for Will; instead, it gave him a well-developed plot. Anyone who has experienced the life-altering act of coming out to friends and family can relate to the internet arguments that demand that Will publicly state his sexuality. Additionally, Stranger Things is set in the 1980s, a period in which being gay wasn’t nearly as acceptable as it is today.
The exchange between Will and his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), who is also in the scene, is powerful. Schnapp acknowledged that it was only after his monologue scene in the back of the van with Mike that the writers decided to film Will’s scene with Jonathan. The heart-to-heart between the two brothers, the authors believed, was essential to be seen by the audience. It depicted that Will had protective figures around him and was not alone.
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Will’s stirring speech can be seen in episode 8 of season 4 of Stranger Things. Netflix has all four seasons of Stranger Things available for streaming.
