Remember the emotional scene in Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 2 where Will Byers explains to Mike Wheeler what love is? We are sure you all felt a little bad for Byers when he turned the other way crying his heart out. Soon after the episode was released on Netflix, conversations about Byers being gay started gaining momentum. While Noah Schnapp had never discussed the possibility of his character being gay before, the actor now says that Byers is a part of the queer community. 

The Stranger Things star finally sat down to chat all about the show with Variety. He confirmed to them that Will is in love with his best friend Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard). He added that Byers will not confess his love because he doesn’t want to hurt Eleven. However, the actor hopes that Will gets to have a coming-out scene in the fifth and last season of the Netflix show.

Schnapp told the publication, “I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike. They’ve been intentionally pulling that out over the past few seasons. 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. 

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,” the actor added. 

Schnapp went on to talk about how it “isn’t just a single layer thing” and that his character is struggling with coming out. Calling it a “multifaceted trauma” that goes years back, he added that it all started piling up “because he was taken by the Demogorgon” and that his friends never acknowledged him. 

The young actor also said that Will is now scared to come out and doesn’t know if they’ll accept him. “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,” he concluded.

Well, this makes the wait for season 5 even harder for fans. The finale season is expected to come out in 2024. The sci-fi horror series also stars Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, Winona Ryder and David Harbour, among others.

(Featured Image Credits: Screengrab from @netflix)