WARNING: “Stranger Things” season 4 spoilers are upon us.
Noah Schnapp breaks into the closet door for his character Will Byers in the hit Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’.
The 17-year-old actor previously left Will’s preferences to viewers’ interpretation. But after the season finale aired on the streaming service, he revealed to Variety that Will is gay and in love with his best friend, Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard).
“Of course it was alluded to in season 1,” he said of Will’s gradual comfort. “It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just that he’s growing up slower than his friends? Now that he’s gotten older, they’ve turned it into a very real, obvious thing.
“Now it is 100% clear that he is gay and that he loves Mike,” Schnapp confirmed. “But before it was a slow arc. I think it’s so beautifully done because it’s so easy to make a character, just, like, suddenly being gay.”
He also revealed that the scene where Will’s brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), non-verbally supports him to come out, was added to the script after executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer saw his now meme-worthy scene of him crying. in a van.
“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 he can’t be himself,” he said of Jonathan’s protective demeanor in the rearview mirror. .
“Jonathan talks to him in code – it’s just the perfect way to tell someone like Will that he cares about him and that he’ll accept him no matter what,” he concluded. “I think it was very healthy.”
Schnapp also stated that he had broken up with pop star Doja Cat when he infamously posted a DM exchange on TikTok in which the “Need To Know” singer asked Schnapp to pair her up with his co-star, Joseph Quinn. His part in their conversation angered Doja.
“I’m super serious on social media and pretty crazy so I posted that I wasn’t thinking too much about it, but it clearly hurt her,” Schnapp said.
“So, as it should be, I apologized and she was totally fine, saying, ‘I’m sorry the way I reacted,'” he said of Doja, who reportedly lost nearly 200,000 followers because of her response, while Schnapp apparently gained nearly 2 million fans. “It was all good. I love her. I am the biggest fan of her music.”
Season 4 of “Stranger Things” is now on Netflix.