While you’re on your millionth listen of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, Noah Schnapp a.k.a. Will from Stranger Things, confirmed that his character is gay and in love with his best friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard). In an interview with Variety, Schnapp confirms that his character struggles with understanding and navigating his sexuality. 

“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”, Schnapps says for Variety. “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…Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike”.

This comes after Schnapp dodged various questions and fan theories about Will’s sexuality, as season 4 of Stranger Things comes to a close. Will’s character has gone through a lot, to say the least. He was trapped in the “Upside Down”, possessed by an entity called the Mind Flayer, and now navigating his sexual identity in the 80s is a pretty tough reality to face. 

But Schnapp knows the importance of playing a character like Will. In a show that’s part sci-fi and part horror, it’s also equal parts “coming of age”. Both the actors and their characters are growing up in front of the screen right before our eyes and are tackling storylines that mean something to many viewers, especially LGBTQ viewers.

“People have come up to me — I was just in Paris and this, like, 40-year-old man came up to me and he was like, “Wow, this Will character made me feel so good. And I related to it so much. That is exactly who I was when I was a kid.” That just made me so happy to hear”.

Of course, we can’t forget about the memes that have been created about Will that either allude to his sexuality or just poke fun at his emotional scenes. 

But Schnapp loves the attention.

“There’s so many [memes]. I can’t think of anything specific, but it’s awesome and honestly, it feels really good to get that recognition for that scene. Just that little turn told you so much”.

With fan theories put to rest, we can now welcome another queer character into the sci-fi fold and fans love it”.

You can read the entire interview here. 

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