This week was a big week for Stranger Things fans. The next three episodes just dropped for the final season. Noah Schnapp (The Tutor, Abe), who plays Will Byers, takes a leap of faith when he vocalizes and comes out as being gay to his family and friends. Schnapp told Deadline, “It was so freeing, I mean, there’s been so much buildup for this scene for so long. Since, I would argue, episode one of the first season. So getting to finally have that moment and just have the dialogue…Will is always speaking through so much of his facial expressions, but to actually verbalize his emotions and express them to everyone was so freeing to finally get to do it.”
The creators told Deadline the scene was “something that we’ve been building to for a long time. I think mostly we were nervous, as we just wanted to do right by Noah. Obviously, we’ve been working with him for so long, since he was a little kid, and we knew that this scene, we’ve talked about it over the years with him. We knew it was important, and we all wanted to get it right. There’s not a scene, I don’t think, in the entire series that we spent as long on as we did that coming scene, just working it and working it until it felt right to us.”
The final approval for the scene, of course, came from Schnapp, Deadline reports. Schnapp even discussed how Will’s coming out felt similar to his own life. As an actor, this allowed him to draw from his own life experiences, making the scene feel as authentic as possible. Though he was mindful that this was playing out in a different cultural and political climate than the present.
“[It was about] making sure I really understood the environment and the landscape that I’m declaring this in,” Schnapp said via Deadline, “where the AIDS epidemic was rampant, the Reagan administration wouldn’t even acknowledge that gay was a real word. If you even so much as came out, people thought you were sick and were contagious.”
In the scene, Will details how Vecna made him believe his friends and family would abandon him if the truth came out. Luckily, the reverse happens, as his community shows the best support.
“He poured everything into every single take,” Matt said via Deadline. “I think that brought out these incredible performances in [the cast], and I think they got lost in what he was saying, and it was moving them in a very real way, because Noah was very, very, very emotional that day, and very moving.”
“They were so respectful and gave me so much space to get into the character, which I really appreciated. I didn’t really get to fully take note of all their reactions, just because there’s so many people in the room, and I’m so emotional,” Schnapp said via Deadline. “So it really only hit me after, when I watched it, seeing how genuine it felt. And then, of course, when we cut the cameras, Charlie and I started hugging and crying for real. So it definitely hit home.”
After the emotional penultimate episode, viewers will need to patiently wait for more to come in the finale of Stranger Things, which will drop on December 31, 2025.