‘Stranger Things’ Star Noah Schnapp on Will Byers’ Sexuality
Written by SOURCE on July 9, 2019
Warning: Stranger Things season 3 spoilers ahead.
In the days since Stranger Things‘ season premiere, fans have been consumed by many unanswered questions: Are Eleven’s powers permanently gone? What exactly happened to Hopper? Who is “the American” being held in Russia? And is Will Byers gay? Though we don’t have definitive answers, actor Noah Schnapp addressed the latter topic in a recent interview with The Wrap.
“It’s really up to interpretation,” said 14-year-old Schnapp, who plays Will. “While all the characters were out developing and growing up, Will was in the Upside Down and he was alone there, not interacting with or connected to his friends or the rest of the world. And when he got back, he expected everything to just go back to how it was before, how it was when he was normal and when he was a kid and he wanted to go back to the basement and play D&D.”
Questions about Will’s sexuality were reignited in season 3 episode “The Case of the Missing Life Guard,” when Will accuses Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) of being neglectful friends. Will claims they’ve been too preoccupied with their “stupid” girlfriends, which prompts an unusual response from Mike: “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.”
As Schnapp said, this line could be interpreted in several ways. Is Mike simply saying Will doesn’t like girls yet, as he’s attempting to regain his old childhood? Or is Mike hinting at something bigger? Schnapp is convinced it’s the former.
“All his friends have girlfriends and they’re out dating, and he just wants to have fun with his friends,” he said. “You see in Episode 3, he just wants to play D&D in the basement, and now all of his friends have girlfriends and they are dating. And it’s kind of, when you hear Mike say that line, it’s really up to the audience to interpret it. I kind of just interpret it like he’s not ready to grow up and he doesn’t really want to move on to dating and relationships yet. He still wants to be a kid and play in the basement like he did in old times.”
