“Stranger Things” actor Noah Schnapp has come out as gay on TikTok.
“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 wrote in the post.
Schnapp also used an original sound clip from a different TikTok posted by user @princessazula0, who says in her own video, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, will never be that serious.”
He also captioned the post, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
Schnapp plays Will Byers, a closeted teen himself, in the Netflix tentpole series. Will’s sexuality came under more intense scrutiny with the arrival of the fourth and penultimate season of The Duffer Brothers’ sci-fi fantasy show as Will exhibits feelings toward his best friend Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard). Previous seasons had pointed toward this outcome, with Will’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) whispering that bullies at school called Will a “f–” as well as when Mike heatedly tells Will “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” in Season 3 after Will’s character gets another chance at a full life with his friends, who have matured in his physical absence during Season 1 and his more mental absence due to possession by the Mind Flayer in Season 2.
Following the release of the two-part Season 4, executive producer Shawn Levy hinted at Will’s sexuality, but it was Schnapp who confirmed to Variety in July that Will is gay and that he is in love with Mike. He had previously left the aspect of Will’s identity more ambiguous.
“It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?” Schnapp told Variety. “Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike.”
Season 5 of “Stranger Things” will conclude the series, but there is no word of a release date. The writers room began Aug. 1.
