American actor Noah Schnapp of Stranger Things fame has set the record straight about his character Will Byers’ sexuality on the show.
According to People magazine, over the show’s four-season run, fans have questioned whether Will is gay, some are even criticizing the Netflix series for not explicitly stating the seemingly obvious sooner.
However, in a new interview with Variety published on Thursday, Schnapp confirmed Will’s sexual orientation, revealing the teenager even has romantic feelings towards best friend Mike played by Finn Wolfhard.
“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?’” said Schnapp.
He added, “Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100 per cent clear that he is gay and he does love Mike.”
That certainly seemed clear enough to viewers of the season 4 finale, especially in one scene in which Will talked to Mike about the difficulties of feeling “different.”
He later had a heart-to-heart with his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) where Jonathan appeared to offer his support to Will, without actually addressing his sexuality.
“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,” Schnapp said.
He also spoke about playing a gay character at such a young age while in real life also handling his own personal growth and self-identity. “I think it’s all just part of the challenge of acting,” added Schnapp in the Variety interview, as per People magazine.
Stranger Things premiered on Netflix in 2016. Alongside Schnapp, Wolfhard, and Bobby Brown, the acclaimed sci-fi drama series stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, and Priah Ferguson.
