Noah Schnapp is open to the possibility that his “Stranger Things” character might be gay, and the original pitch for the show may confirm it.
In an interview with The Wrap last month, the Will Byers actor talked about a scene that’s had fans buzzing.
During an argument early in the third season, Finn Wolfhard’s Mike tells Will, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.”
Will is taken aback, leaving fans to speculate that Mike may have outed Will.
“It’s really up to interpretation,” Schnapp told The Wrap. “While all the characters were out developing and growing up, Will was in the Upside Down and he was alone there, not interacting with or connected to his friends or the rest of the world. And when he got back, he expected everything to just go back to how it was before, how it was when he was normal and when he was a kid and he wanted to go back to the basement and play D&D.
“All his friends have girlfriends and they’re out dating, and he just wants to have fun with his friends.”
But in a seeming bit of confirmation that the character could be gay, fans dug up the original pitch creators Matt and Ross Duffer sent around Hollywood to get the show made.
Titled “Montauk”, the document describes the themes, story and style of the show, along with character descriptions.
Of note is the description for Will Byers, which describes him as, “a sweet, sensitive kid with sexual identity issues. He only recently came to the realization that he does not fit into the 1980s definition of ‘normal.’”
RELATED: ‘Stranger Things 3’ Watched By More Than 40 Million Households In 4 Days Says Netflix
That said the show changed a fair bit from its original pitch, and Schnapp thinks the scene may have nothing to do with Will’s sexuality at all.
“You see in episode 3, he just wants to play D&D in the basement, and now all of his friends have girlfriends and they are dating,” he said. “And it’s kind of, when you hear Mike say that line, it’s really up to the audience to interpret it. I kind of just interpret it like he’s not ready to grow up and he doesn’t really want to move on to dating and relationships yet. He still wants to be a kid and play in the basement like he did in old times.”
