Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp confirms the obvious about Will: 'He is gay and he does love Mike'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 4.

Noah Schnapp has officially brought Will Byers out of the closet, even if Stranger Things season 4 left some wanting more.

The actor confirmed that his character on the Netflix mega hit is gay, verifying seasons' worth of teases and overt hints.

"Obviously, it was hinted at in season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?" Schnapp tells Variety. "Now that he's gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it's 100 percent clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc."

Fan theories were refueled after season 3, in which Will and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) got into a fight. Will felt he was being left behind by his friends, leading Mike to blurt out, "It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

Executive producer and director of that episode Shawn Levy had told EW that moment wasn't "specific to sexual orientation or anything." But with season 4, he teased, "There aren't many accidents on Stranger Things. There is clear intention and strategy and real thought given to each and every character. So, if you came away from Volume 1 feeling those bread crumbs of plot and character, it's probably no accident."

Season 4 brought the Hawkins kids to high school. When Will reunited with Mike in their California-based mission to save Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), he delivered a veiled monologue to his friend. "Sometimes I think it's just scary to open up like that, to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most," Will said, "because what if they don't like the truth?"

Speaking of El, he added, "She's so different from other people, and when you're different, sometimes you feel like a mistake."

Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) later had a heart-to-heart with his younger brother in another saying-it-without-saying-it scene. "I don't want you to forget that I'm here, and I'll always be here, and I love you," Jonathan says. "And there is nothing in this world �� absolutely nothing — that will ever change that."

Schnapp himself has played coy in the past and even suggested that Will wasn't gay, which makes us wonder at what point the writers definitively made this character choice.

"I think it is done so beautifully, because it's so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay," Schnapp tells Variety. "People have come up to me — I was just in Paris and this, like, 40-year-old man came up to me and he was like, 'Wow, this Will character made me feel so good. And I related to it so much. That is exactly who I was when I was a kid.' That just made me so happy to hear. They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they're doing it so well."

Stranger Things season 4 is streaming now on Netflix.

EW's Ultimate Guide to Stranger Things is available online or wherever magazines are sold.

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