Netflix’s Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp confirmed that Will, a fan-favorite character in the show, is “gay and he does love Mike,” making the popular series the latest LGBTQ+ content aimed at young TV audiences.
“Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike,” the 17-year-old actor told Variety of his character Will Byers, who apparently wants to be more than just friends with his childhood buddy Mike Wheeler — played by 19-year-old Finn Wolfhard.
Schnapp added that Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have gradually made that clear over the show’s run.
“It was a slow arc,” he said. “I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay.”
Actor Noah Schnapp says his character Will “does love Mike” and is hoping for a coming-out scene in the next season of Stranger Things. (Netflix)
His character’s true feelings were reportedly implied throughout the season, and were made more clear in a scene in which Will consoles Mike after he opens up about how he worries about losing his girlfriend, Eleven — played by Millie Bobby Brown.
“These past few months, she’s been so lost without you,” Will said in the scene, clearly talking about himself. “She’s so different from other people, and when you’re different sometimes you feel like a mistake. But you make her feel like she’s not a mistake at all — and that gives her the courage to fight on — so yeah, El needs you Mike: and she always will.”
The homosexual development between the two teenage characters in Stranger Things — a show popular among young audiences — is just the latest example of Hollywood’s concerted, industry-wide effort to place LGBTQ-related content onto kids’ television screens.
In April, for example, Disney released what has been described as the “gayest kid’s movie yet,” as the company continues to pay fealty to radical queer activists with its attacks on Florida’s anti-grooming legislation.
Moreover, the increase of LGBTQ characters and themes popping up in TV shows made for children in the last decade is not an organic development. It is the consequence of so-called “queer creators” pushing the LGBTQ agenda and working with major entertainment networks, writers, producers, showrunners, and directors.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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