‘He is gay and he does love Mike’

One of the many thrills embedded in “Stranger Things” has been watching each of the young cast literally grow into young adults before our eyes. That is perhaps especially true of its youngest original member, Noah Schnapp. His character, Will Byers, has been through it over the years: Abducted into the Upside Down, then possessed by a demonic entity known as the Mind Flayer, and then seemingly abandoned by his best friends as they discovered girls and matured beyond their days of playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Will never has, and throughout the recently concluded fourth season, he struggled to articulate to his best friend, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), why.

From the start, it seemed clear that Will is gay and terrified of coming out. When Variety asked Schnapp and his costar Millie Bobby Brown about it in May for Volume 1 of Season 4, however, Schnapp said instead that Will’s sexuality was “up to the audience’s interpretation.”

In a follow-up interview this week following the conclusion of Season 4, however, the 17-year-old actor is clear that he felt compelled to dodge the question to avoid spoiling Will’s emotionally nuanced journey in the final two episodes of the season, as crafted by creators and executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer.

He also talked about the standout scene from the season finale that wasn’t in the original script, why he launched a vegan hazelnut spread, and, yes, the social media storm around his TikTok post (since deleted) of DMs from Doja Cat about Schnapp’s “Stranger Things” costar Joseph Quinn.

What was your understanding of Will’s arc for Season 4 when you started filming?

This was kind of a different season for him. I was used to acting him [dealing] with the Mind Flayer, the supernatural aspects and the darker, kind of non-personal stuff. This season was a new thing for me. I had to explore him navigating his personal identity issues and struggling with growing up and assimilating into high school. It was new for me.

What did you understand about what that personal journey would look like, what Will was going to be contending with?

I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike. They’ve been intentionally pulling that out over the past few seasons. Even in Season 1, they hinted at that and slowly, slowly grew that storyline. I…