Stranger Things scene has fans emotional after Noah Schnapp comes out: ‘Achingly authentic’
Will (Noah Schnapp) almost confessed his love for Mike (Finn Wolfhard) in Stranger Things season four. (Netflix)
After Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp came out as gay, fans are rewatching his emotional season four performance in a new light.
Schnapp has been showered with support by the LGBTQ+ community after he came out as gay in a TikTok video on Thursday night (5 January).
Cast members and celebrities rushed to support him after he revealed he’d told “friends and family” he is gay after “being in the closet for 18 years”.
The actor also made reference to his character on the hit Netflix sci-fi series, Will Byers, who he confirmed was gay in July, claiming he is “more similar to Will than I thought”.
Fans agreed with the comparison, praising Schnapp for emotional scenes in the show’s fourth season, in which Will bears his heart to his friends and is told by his brother that he’ll always be accepted.
“A straight person would never have been able to film this scene as well as he did,” one fan said.
Other fans claimed the scene seemed “even more emotional and raw” now that Schnapp himself has come out, while another fan said “I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been for Noah to film that van scene in Stranger Things while still being in the closet”.
“No wonder certain scenes in Stranger Things season four felt so achingly authentic,” another fan wrote.
Though Will doesn’t explicitly say he is gay in the scene, Schnapp told Variety that it “solidified the truth, that he loves his best friend and he doesn’t know how to tell him.”
He added that he was “bawling” during the scene’s production.
Schnapp added that he’s “excited to see what happens” to his storyline in Stranger Things in the show’s upcoming final season.
Speaking to People, he said: “Obviously, it [Will’s sexuality] was hinted at in season one. 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.”
He added to Variety that the writers of the show are “still working it out”, but that he would love to film a “coming out” scene.
“They’re still working it out, but they have their end goal. There’s so many different things they have to address. Obviously, we hope for a coming out scene, and I also want to see them address this connection to the Mind Flayer and how that fits into the world,” he said.
“I just want to see it all tie in and all work out. So I’m excited to see what happens.”
Schnapp is set to reprise his role as Will in Stranger Things season five, which will begin filming later this year. A premiere date is yet to be announced.
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