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Stranger Things 4: Schnapp, Brown Offer Thoughts on Will's Sexuality

Published Mon, 30 May 2022 20:14:12 -0500

With Netflix & The Duffer Bros' Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 having been flowing across streaming screens for a little better than 72 hours, fans are starting to piece together the puzzle of what's going on- both with the Upside Down and their favorite characters. Over the course of the past three seasons, fans have speculated that the difficulties that Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) has had fitting back in with the group after the events of the first season have nothing to do with demogorgons or alternate dimensions. Namely, that Will has been struggling with coming out as gay to his friends and family. In an interview with Variety, both Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown addressed the topic but for the sake of even minor spoilers (because there will be some Season 4 details), we're going to get into it after the following image spoiler buffer.

Viewers have pointed out a number of examples to support their theory from this season's first two episodes, from Will's choice of gay mathematician Alan Turing (who was chemically castrated in the 1950s after being prosecuted in a court of law over his sexuality) for his presentation and his reaction to when a girl shows interest in him to the apparent hurt he shows when Mike (Finn Wolfhard) focuses more on Jane (Brown) during his spring break vacation. But it was these words from Will to Mike after the latter expresses regret over not opening up to Jane about his feelings before it all went to hell: "Sometimes, I think it's just scary, to open up like that – to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most. Because what if… what if they don't like the truth?" While their castmates Wolfhard and David Harbour have implied in the past that they believe that Will will be coming out, Schnapp and Brown see the answer to Will's sexuality as being purposefully vague- something that the duo appreciates.

"I feel like they [the writers] never really address it or blatantly say how Will is. I think that's the beauty of it, that it's just up to the audience's interpretation, if it's Will kind of just refusing to grow up and growing up slower than his friends, or if he is really gay," Schnapp said. Brown added, "Can I just say, it's 2022 and we don't have to label things. I think what's really nice about Will's character is that he's just a human being going through his own personal demons and issues. So many kids out there don't know, and that's okay. That's okay to not know. And that's okay not to label things." "I find that people do reach to put a label on him and just want to know, so badly, like, 'Oh, and this is it.' He's just confused and growing up. And that's what it is to be a kid," Schnapp explained

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