The Duffers explain how they’ve been planning Will Byers’ trajectory for years.

Noah Schnapp unpacks those *Stranger Things 5 *Will reveals and emotional, ‘nerve wracking’ scene: ‘It was a lot of pressure’

The Duffers explain how they've been planning Will Byers' trajectory for years.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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December 25, 2025 9:00 p.m. ET

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Noah Schnapp and Winona Ryder on 'Stranger Things 5'. Credit:

Courtesy of Netflix

**Warning: This article contains spoilers from *Stranger Things* season 5, Volume 2.**

The cliffhanger finale to *Stranger Things* season 5, Volume 1 was just the beginning of the revelations to one Mr. Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).

The Volume 2 episodes, consisting of 505-507, answer one big question that fans have had for years: Why was Will taken to the Upside Down in the first place? The premiere of the show's final go around revealed Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) held the boy captive while pumping him full of dark particles, and now the show reveals to what end.

Vecna used Will as a puppet to enhance his powers in the landscape of Hawkins while he remained trapped in the Abyss and Upside Down. He used the boy's body to spy on the goings-on in the town over the years, while taking command of his mind to create the network of underground tunnels while Will slept. This was all part of the villain's master plan. By slowing infecting Hawkins with the Upside Down, thereby weakening the world, he hoped to reshape the entire globe by merging it with his dark alternate dimension.

Now, by the end of episode 7, he's powerful enough to make it happen, by using the kidnapped children to further enhance his abilities.

Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, and Winona Ryder on 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

"We did start to lay the groundwork all the way back in season 2," Matt Duffer, series co-creator with Ross Duffer, tells **. "We knew [Will] had these innate powers and he had this deep connection with Vecna, but it wasn't until we really started working on [season] 5 with our writers that we realized pretty quickly that so much of the season needed to orient around Will. First of all, from a character point of view, there was so much left to explore with him in terms of his growth as a character and his coming of age, but also the show really began with Will. His vanishing is what kickstarted everything."

The writers made the storyline more thematically resonant by tethering these revelations with Will's coming-out journey. An emotional sequence sees Will deliver a speech in which he reveals to the entire group that he's gay. That, too, has been planned for some time.

"You can read even in our [season 1] lookbook. We talk about his sexuality all the way back then and obviously reference it in some ways in season 1," Ross Duffer says. "It's something we've been planning long before we knew that Noah was gay. It's just how things ended up aligning, in a way, but obviously it allowed for his experiences — what he's told us about his experience — to help shape this season and his coming-out scene, ultimately."

Schnapp sits down with EW to talk about both the revelations around Will's connection to Vecna and the character's big coming-out scene.

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers on 'Stranger Things 5'.

Courtesy of Netflix

**: In terms of all the revelations with Will, I felt like this has been your meatiest material yet as the character. What were your thoughts when digesting all of the scripts and realizing what your role in all of this this would be?**

**NOAH SCHNAPP:** I was like, "Oh s---! I gotta really lock in here." Season 2 was also probably pretty meaty for me, and it was nice to step back into some of those moments and have that opportunity again to showcase some range. I had the most fun this season, for sure. The Duffers let me do, for the first time, a lot of things that I hadn't yet done or proven. It's always fun as an actor to kind of go outside the box that you normally live in. And who could complain about that episode 4 ending?

**What specific things come to mind when you think about things that you've never done before?**

Stepping into more of this leader, triumphant, assertive role where he doesn't just fall down and let people walk all over him, but he stands up stronger than ever before. He becomes a superhero and fights the evil villain. I'm used to playing this scared little boy. Even in dialogue, usually Will is more quiet and has a few scared lines. We're talking about episode 7, that's the most dialogue I've ever had in a scene, ever, in the show. To just get to speak how I feel and not constantly holding it all bottled in, it's so nice.

See 'Stranger Things' cast react to that huge episode 4 reveal during table read

'Stranger Things' season 5 final runtimes revealed — including a supersized finale

**Let's talk about that moment of Will's coming-out sequence since you brought it up. Was it as chaotic as it looked to shoot when you have every single one of your hero characters in the same room at the same time?**

It was crazy. I did not expect to have everyone there like that, but yeah, it was a lot of pressure. I will say the whole cast was so gracious and so supportive that day. They just sat with me and were quiet and allowed me to be in it. They didn't interrupt. And it was in the middle of the night, 2, 3, 4 a.m., like all day shooting. They gave me that space — usually everyone's messing around and making jokes — and I really appreciated that. But it was a lot of pressure and very nerve wracking, I'm not gonna lie. **

**I'm surprised you shot it that early in the morning.**

Scheduling on our show's a disaster and things have to move around. They're like, 'Well, the scenes can be shot on stages in the middle of the night.' And I was like, 'Of course!'

Noah Schnapp's Will channels Vecna's powers in 'Stranger Things 5'.

**What do you have to do for yourself, especially when you've been working the majority of the day, to save the energy that you need for this big sequence? **

Music. A lot of music. I was just constantly going outside and listening to certain songs that helped remind myself of this personal journey that I have that related to it. I reread a lot of my coming-out texts that I sent a few years back to get back in that mindset. But then I also wanted to make sure I wasn't coming out as Noah on TikTok in 2023 but as Will in the '80s landscape, which was completely different. So I watched *Angels in America*. Winona [Ryder] gave me that rec to just understand the AIDS epidemic.

**I can expect a lot of people to draw the comparisons between your personal journey and Will's personal journey, but as the performer behind this character, how valid do you feel those parallels are? **

How could I not take some parts of my own journey into that, to make it feel as real as possible? I would be lying if I said I didn't, but, again, I was being true to the character and the time and the setting. It wasn't just me. But I did kind of use that. Like, I'd never had a time to sit down with the whole cast like that. I just called them or texted them, or they saw it on the news when I came out in my personal life. So this was like I actually have the chance to sit down and speak from the heart. For a lot of the cast members, it helped them actually understand even more of my own journey. They told me that.

**Is the significance of this moment for TV something you think about? Even in the past week, *Boots* got canceled.**

**Yeah. After one season.**

**We don't know. So now we have even less representation on TV currently. Who knows what's gonna come next year, but as of right now, Will Buyers is really our most prominent openly gay character on TV. Does that significance play in your mind?**

Hundred percent. Especially not being on a queer show, but this covers every audience: old, young, straight, gay, male, female, everything. Everyone watches *Stranger Things*. And the pressure, but also the excitement of getting to showcase a character in the front and show that he is strong and powerful and someone that you want to root for and that you care about — and your homophobic uncle has to sit there and watch it with you. I love that. I was excited and also nervous to make sure that scene was perfect for all those little boys and girls out there who felt like me at one point. I think if I had that scene when I was a little kid, I might've come out right then and there. Seeing how everyone embraces the character after, it's just gold for our younger generation. It means so much more than anything else I could ever do in this job.

Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Winona Ryder, Maya Hawke, and Finn Wolfhard on 'Stranger Things 5'.

**You mentioned the pressure of wanting to get that moment right. The Duffers and the writers, they talk about wanting to stick the landing, and they're in a position where they're actively writing the story and making that happen. How much or how little does that pressure of sticking the landing leak onto you as a performer?**

It leaks sometimes. I try to just block it all out and forget that it's, whatever, the biggest English-language show, but you remember it sometimes. And especially with this scene, it's been leading to this, not just this season, but since season 1 when they're calling him [the F slur]. He's the sensitive child and you don't know if he's growing slowly or if it's his own identity struggles. That's what's so beautiful about our show. So, yeah, pressure is on, but that's what you have to do, just learn to tune it out and sink your heart into the exact moment of being present, being spontaneous, and just feeling it.

**The other part of this equation is Will as "Vecna's spy" and all the revelations about the tunnels. Did that reveal come similarly to Will's power unveiling? You were preparing for the table read, going through the scripts?**

Yeah, honestly. They kept a lot of it from me just 'cause they didn't want me to run around talking about it, but once we're filming, they didn't have the final seven, eight scripts written and I had to talk to them about some place of where it goes to understand how to approach the character. But for the most part, yeah, I'm finding out as we're reading it. I'm just as excited as a fan getting to watch it.

**I loved all the connections, even with the tunnels, that the show makes to season 2. How influential was season 2 for you? Was it beneficial to revisit those episodes in advance of filming?**

Season 2 I rewatched right before filming, just 'cause they said we're revisiting the early seasons. Season 1 and 2 are total moments that feel relevant to now. Even the smallest things that some people might not even notice, like where we're sitting at a certain table in episode 1 or 2 of this season. Me and Joyce have a heart-to-heart emotional scene at a table. We were supposed to sit on the couch, and I was like, "No, let's sit at the table." We're sitting in the exact same positions that we were in the heart-to-heart in season 2. Having all these parallels and moments of full circle, it just feels so fulfilling as a viewer.

*This article has been edited for length and clarity. *

The *Stranger Things* series finale, "The Rightside Up," will premiere in select theaters and on Netflix Dec. 31 starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.**

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