Noah Schnapp Asked The Stranger Things Creators To Add A Key Will And Mike Scene

Since the very first episode of "Stranger Things," the friendship between Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) and Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) formed one of the show's strongest emotional cores. After all, Will's disappearance kicks off the show's story, sparking Mike to go on a quest to get his friend back from The Upside Down. Season 2 centered on Will's link to The Mind Flayer, a terrifying, psychic beast that forcibly connected Will to a hive mind, and it was his friendship with Mike that ultimately saved him.

By the fifth and final season of the show, fans had picked up on plenty of hints that Will had a big crush on his best friend. Finally, "Stranger Things" addressed this in its penultimate episode, giving Will an emotional coming out scene where just about every character reassured him that he was loved anyway. Schnapp realized something was missing as they went to film the finale, however; aside from the group scene, there was no moment where Will and Mike would have a moment together to process!

Schnapp went to the Duffer Brothers, who created the show, to voice his concern. "I did actually speak to the Duffers, and they included a scene in the finale that wasn't originally there to kind of close that story properly," he later told People. They bonded on a climb up the radio station tower, pausing for a moment to reaffirm to one another that they'd be best friends anyway, even though Mike didn't reciprocate Will's affection.

Noah Schnapp was particularly happy with the way Will Byers' story ended, because he himself realized he was gay over the course of filming the show. In the early years, when the cast were pre-teens, Schnapp wasn't ready to go public with his sexuality — but he was certainly asked about it, even then. "[Journalists] would pry and ask me, 'Is he gay? Are you gay?'" Schnapp recalled in an interview with TIME. "I was 12, 13. I didn't know what to say."

Schnapp had a blunt response to critics of the storyline after Season 4 included hints about Will's sexuality, but it still took him until 2023 to go public himself. Ultimately, the character being gay helped. "I would be in a completely different place if I didn't have Will to portray, and to embrace and help me accept myself. I think if I never played that character, I probably would still be closeted," he told Variety.

"I guess I'm more similar to Will than I thought," he captioned a TikTok (via People). He later told Variety that he'd posted the coming out video and turned off his phone, trying not to obsess over the reactions. "When I opened my phone at the end of the car ride, it was, like, a thousand texts of hearts and congratulations and rainbow flags. I was crying," he said. "I was like, 'I made it. I'm done. I don't have to worry.'"

Plenty of media still falls into the overdone trope of killing off gay characters before the end. "Stranger Things," thankfully, managed to avoid a legacy marred by that same issue. Instead, they turned Will's self-acceptance into his superpower. In the Season 5 episode "Sorcerer," Will gets a pep talk from Robin (Maya Hawke) and realizes that whether or not Mike likes him back, he can still be himself, and his friends are likely to love him anyway. Even if they don't, he realizes, he loves himself.

The moment of acceptance leads to the sudden manifestation of some awesome powers: new telekinetic abilities that allow him to crush the Demogorgons that are about to kill his friends. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Noah Schnapp reflected, "For young, queer audiences out there to see a superhero whose sexuality is his strength ... How awesome!"

Of course, Schnapp wisely knew that those queer audiences also needed to see Will and Mike close off any potential for a romantic future. Mike even seems to joke about the possibility of romance in that scene in the finale, teasing his friend, "Friends? No thanks." There's a moment where he looks like he wants more, and he adds, "... Best friends!" While it might be easy to be offended by that kind of a joke, that's the whole point for Will: at this point, whether or not Mike likes him back, he knows he'll be okay.