Noah Schnapp has revealed one major thing that makes him similar to his "Stranger Things" character, Will: he's gay. The 18-year-old star has come out of the closet, confirming his sexual orientation in a TikTok video posted Thursday, January 5.
Schnapp seemed surprised that his family and friends knew it all along after making the revelation. In fact, the clip he shared showed how calm and happy he was.
The clip in question, via HollywoodLife, showed him lying in bed and looking in high spirits. He wrote over the video of himself that all his family and friends said that when he finally told them he was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years, they knew. He also mouthed the words to a sound that said things were never serious.
In the caption, the actor referenced his "Stranger Things" character and wrote he guessed he was more similar to him than he thought.
For starters, "Stranger Things" fans suspected Will was gay, which Schnapp confirmed in an interview with Variety in July 2022. The young star revealed his character's sexuality was already hinted at in the first season, stressing it was already there, but nobody knew.
One obvious clue was that Will seemed to be growing up slower than his friends. Asied from there, there were a lot of teases and hints that Will wasn't interested in women, like in a Season 3 episode, where Mike (Finn Wolfhard) yelled at him that it wasn't his fault that he didn't like girls after a heated "Dungeons & Dragons" game.
Schnapp continued that now that Will had gotten older, people behind the series made it a "very real, obvious thing." Now, it's clear that Will is a hundred percent gay, and he loves Mike.
Will's conversation with his brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), in the Season 4 finale even served as his official revelation that he's gay. Jonathan gladly accepted his little brother, giving him a tight hug as a sign of acceptance and support.
Meanwhile, "Stranger Things" director and executive producer Shawn Levy told Entertainment Weekly that the third season wasn't specific to the cast's sexual orientation. However, he admitted that "a clear intention, strategy, and thought" was given to each character.
So if fans felt those breadcrumbs of plot and character in Season 4's first volume, it was not an accident. Schnapp had also hinted at Will's sexuality in past interviews but later teased that it was up to everyone's interpretation.
