Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp continued to tease his character Will's potential crush on Finn Wolfhard's Mike in Season 5.
Noah Schnapp, who has found himself at the center of some viral controversy over the last year, is set to return for one last time in the upcoming final season of Stranger Things.
Whether it is set photos from Stranger Things revealing a new job for Natalia Dyers' Nancy or crpytic message about when the show will release, fans have eaten up every morsel they can ge their hands on regarding the Netflix series' farewell journey.
Some of the biggest teases have come regarding Schnapp's Will character possibly being queer.
Noah Schnapp Teases Will & Mike Romance in Stranger Things
Speaking at the Stranger Things-centric fan convention, Upside Down Con, Will actor Noah Schnapp continued to dance around the idea of his character crushing on his best friend, Mike, in Season 5.
When asked if Will will be revealed to be gay in Season 5, secretly harboring a romantic fondness for Finn Wolfhard's Mike Wheeler, Schnapp said "I feel like you could tell right from the beginning that Mike and Will were a pair:" (via UpsideDownScoop on X):
“You guys are going to get me in trouble. Spoiler. How has their relationship evolved? I think it has had its ups and downs. I feel like you could tell right from the beginning that Mike and Will were a pair. Then there was Lucas and Dustin, who were a pair."
However, he would not outright confirm their relationship would go anywhere beyond being best friends, cutting himself off while saying, "And then, as it goes on, you kind of realize that Will does have:"
"And Mike was always super protective of Will and would always lean on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship. And then, as it goes on, you kind of realize that Will does have… Am I allowed to say this?"
Leading up to this point, there have been several teases pointing towards a potential romantic connection between Mike and Will, which Schnapp has had to head-on.
In 2022, the Stranger Things actor told Variety that Will being gay "was always kind of there" and only in recent seasons has been made "100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike:"
"Yeah, I think it is. Obviously, it was hinted at in Season 1: 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."
He said that this "slow arc" has been "done so beautifully" and is coming from a "real" place:
"I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay. 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. They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they’re doing it so well."
Fans will have to wait for Season 5 to be released to see how Will's potential feelings for Mike will play out on-screen. Thankfully though, fellow star Gaten Matarazzo teased that Stranger Things drought may be coming to an end soon.
Stranger Things Season 5 is expected to debut sometime in 2025.
