Fans have long speculated over whether Stranger Things’ Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) is queer or not, and now the Duffer Brothers have finally confirmed it was never a question. According to Matt Duffer, Will’s queerness was locked in from the very beginning — all the way back in the show’s original pitch book.
When asked if Noah Schnapp influenced the direction of Will’s sexuality or if it was there from day one, Matt didn’t leave much room for doubt.
“No, no. You can actually look at our original pitch book. That was always the plan for Will,” Matt told PEDESTRIAN.TV
The Montauk series bible, which describes Will as a “sweet, sensitive kid” with “sexual identity issues”.
The early pitch materials paint Will as a boy who doesn’t fit his 1980s small‑town surroundings, whose sensitivity and colourful clothes make him a target.
On screen, Joyce (Winona Ryder) tells Hopper (David Harbour) that “the kids, they’re mean. They laugh at him, laugh at his clothes, call him names”, and mentions that his dad used to call him “queer” and a “f*g”, language that’s never really directed at the other boys in the party.
Fans have also latched onto Joyce’s “Rainbow Ship” story in season two, where she recalls Will drawing his own rainbow spaceship using “every colour in the box” as one of her strongest memories of who he is before everything goes to hell. Put together with the bible’s “sexual identity issues” line, it’s easy to see why queer viewers have treated those details as purposeful, not random set dressing.
By season three, the show stops being coy and has Mike blurt out, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” during a fight, followed by a lingering shot on Will’s devastated face and his decision to tear down Castle Byers. That scene has become a core piece of fandom evidence, breaking down how the moment plays like a line being crossed for a kid who’s been called “queer” his whole life and is terrified of being seen.
Season four then pushes Will’s feelings closer to the surface, especially in the van scene where he talks about “someone” being in love with Mike, turns away and cries, while Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) quietly notices. Off‑screen, Schnapp has since said that moment “solidified that truth” and confirmed that “Will is gay and he does love Mike” to Variety.
Cut to season five, volume on,e which keeps linking Will’s queerness directly to his growth instead of treating it like a background detail. Will’s reaction to seeing Robin (Maya Hawke) kiss Vickie (Amybeth McNulty) and the way she later opens up about her own crush on Tammy Thompson effectively turns Robin into a kind of queer elder and guide, nudging him towards accepting himself rather than chasing validation from a crush.
Those conversations echo later when Will faces Vecna and is forced to confront all the ways he’s been told he’s “weak” or doesn’t belong, only to tap into a new sense of power once he remembers who he was before fear and shame set in. This tied his big season five moment to self‑acceptance rather than just sci‑fi lore
Looking ahead to the show’s final chapter, Ross Duffer summed up fan reactions to the ending in one word: “Tears”.
Matt told P.TV he doesn’t fully know how people will respond, but says the very small group who have seen the finale so far have had “a very emotional response to it”, and that reading the script for the first time with the cast was “almost the most nerve‑wracking thing” because these characters have been with them for ten years.
He also said “the actors are all really happy and satisfied with how their character journeys ended”, which is especially significant for Will, whose arc has carried so much queer weight for so long. Ross described the end of production as “very emotional” and admitted everyone is “in a bit of denial” and expects it to “hit… like a truck” once the dust settles.
If you’d like to join me in waiting for that truck, you can catch up on volumes one and two of Stranger Things season five on Netflix right now, with volume three dropping on January 1 2026.
The post Stranger Things’ Will Byers Was Always Meant To Be Queer: ‘Always The Plan’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
