Noah Schnapp, one of the young stars of Stranger Things has come out as gay.
Schnapp shared the news in a tongue-in-cheek TikTok, using the popular soundbite, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious” while adding on-screen text that reads, “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was, ‘We know.’” (Schnapp has more than 31 million TikTok followers, and his frequent use of the social media platform was poked fun at when he and co-star Maya Hawke appeared on The Tonight Show.)
Schnapp has been a central part of Stranger Things since the hit sci-fi series began in 2016. His character, Will Byers, whose disappearance kicked off the string of supernatural events that unite the show’s characters and he’s remained a core character since. Coincidentally, Will’s has been a big conversation point among fans, particularly during the most recent season that premiered last spring. Last July, Schnapp confirmed to Variety that his character is gay, and that Will has feelings for Mike Wheeler, who is played by Finn Wolfhard. Schnapp alluded to the coincidence in his TikTok caption, writing, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
In July, Schnapp said that his character’s sexuality has been there since the beginning. “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 [percent] clear that he is gay and he does love Mike,” he told Variety. “But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay.”
Schnapp’s next project is the thriller film, The Tutor, in which he will star opposite Garrett Hedlund and Victoria Justice. A fifth and final season of Stranger Things is also in the works, though no release date has been announced.