Will’s Powers and Coming Out

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 1 of “Stranger Things.”

For the entire run of “Stranger Things,” Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) has had it rough. In Season 1, he was abducted into the Upside Down and, as we later find out, is filled with some kind of malignant goo by the show’s lead villain, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower). In Season 2, he was possessed by a malevolent entity known as the Mind Flayer. In Season 3, he was left behind by his friend group — Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) — as they turned their attention away from Dungeons & Dragons and to their (often terrible) attempts to romance their girlfriends. And in Season 4, he suffered in closeted silence as his feelings about Mike shifted from friendship to something more.

In the show’s fifth and final season, at the darkest possible moment, Will turns it all around. In the show’s fourth episode, “Sorcerer,” Will discovers that his connection to the Upside Down hive mind — which has been growing stronger, allowing him to see through the eyes of Demogorgons and Vecna himself — runs both ways. Just as three Demogorgons are about to kill Mike, Lucas and their friend Robin (Maya Hawke), Will’s eyes turn white, his body goes rigid, and like a really bad-ass puppeteer, he stops the Demos in mid-air, pulls them higher off the ground, and then snaps their bones, killing them. The final shot of the episode (and of Volume 1 of the season) is of Will, exhausted, wiping a drop of blood from his nose, Eleven-style.

Robin watches this exchange, and the effect Mike’s attention and praise has on Will. Earlier in the season, Will accidentally saw Robin kissing her girlfriend, Vickie (Amybeth McNulty), and he’s since asked her some questions that would lead any queer person to surmise what’s driving Will’s curiosity. 

So while they’re walking in the tunnels, Robin pulls Will aside. She tells him about her first crush, Tammy Thompson, and how Tammy’s relationship with Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) so gutted her that her life totally fell apart. Until the day she stumbled upon old 8mm home movies in her family’s attic.

“I got it up on the projector, and all of a sudden, I was looking at this little version of myself,” she says. “And that little me, I could hardly recognize her. She was so carefree and fearless. And that’s when it hit me. It was never about tone-deaf Tammy. It was always just about me. I was looking for answers in somebody else, but I had all the answers. I just needed to stop being so goddamn scared. Scared of who I really was. Once I did that, oh, I felt so free. It’s like I could fly, you know?”

And so, when the Demogorgons are about to kill Will’s friends, he closes his eyes, and home movies from his childhood appear on the screen. Over snippets from Robin’s monologue, we see the day Mike and Will became friends, and when he built Castle Byers with his brother Jonathan, and, finally, him running through the woods, dressed as a sorcerer, wielding his magic wand.

The moment was especially meaningful for Schnapp, given how much his own journey of self-acceptance has mirrored Will’s. In an interview with Variety in July 2022, Schnapp confirmed for first time that Will is gay and in love with Mike. Six months later, Schnapp came out as gay himself, something he told Variety would not have happened had Will not come out first.

In Season 5, Schnapp gets to return the favor, bringing Will’s coming out journey to life in a way that he hopes will speak to queer and straight people alike. He talked with Variety about becoming “completely nocturnal” for over a month to shoot the full action sequence, his varied experiences watching the episode and how he came to think of Will as a silverback gorilla when he’s exercising his powers.

(Click here for more insight from creators Matt and Ross Duffer into Will’s powers — as well as answers to many more burning questions about Volume 1.)

When did you first learn the full extent of what was going to happen with Will through Episode 4?

I remember the scripts being written the year prior, and Shawn Levy and some of some of the directors not telling me explicitly, because they never trust me with any of the information. But they told me, like, “Sit tight, be excited, like, there’s some good stuff coming.” I was like, “Oh, OK, whatever.” We only get the scripts a week or so before the table reads. I read Episode 4 the day of the table read, because I was like, “OK, I have to make sure I know my parts a little bit so I don’t sound like an idiot.” So I was skimming it, and then, like, literally, in the shower getting ready, I got to the end, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I ran out of the shower screaming. I lived with an assistant. Her name is Brooke. And I was like, “Brooke! Oh, my God, I have powers!” I wanted to tell everyone I knew. And of course, I had to wait two years for anyone to see it. But: coolest thing ever.

Once you got a chance to talk with Matt and Ross about it, how did they talk to you about Will’s abilities?

They kind of just left it up to me, which was a challenge, but exciting. There’s so much, with the Demo-vision as well — just all of these supernatural things that are presented brand new and there’s no reference to anything in the show or anything in real life, so you kind of just have to create it on your own. I remember FaceTiming the Duffers before establishing how the powers work, because you learn later in the season that it comes differently than El’s powers. So I wanted to show that in his physicality and the way he stretches out his hands. One of the hardest parts of the season was just figuring out, even with the Demo-vision, like, OK, so he’s entering into the view of the Demogorgon. How do I show that? And how do I show that he’s switching channels through the different Demogorgons?

How long did it take to shoot the whole action sequence of Vecna’s attack on the military base in Hawkins?

Probably a month, I would say, or month and a half, maybe. Definitely July and a bit of August. It was all overnight. We completely became nocturnal. I slept in a room in my apartment with no windows, and just became like a bat. Would wake up at 8 p.m. go to set. Then there was one week where it was kind of just me. I thought it would be weird, not having any co-stars to bounce off of, but it was just so fun. It was like being on a big playground. I got to work so freely, and run back and forth to the tent, watching playback, being like, “I don’t like this. I don’t like that.”

Then I remember the last shot — where it’s zooming in and he wipes his nose — I was like, OK, this is a big deal. We’re gonna have to work through this for many takes. Let’s make it perfect. Then we did the first take of it. I ran to the tent with the Duffers, and me and Ross looked at each other, and we just laughed. We were like, “OK, don’t touch it. It’s perfect.” It was just, like, a one-take wonder. It was such a thrill as an actor. What a dream!

How was it to shoot Will’s face-off with Vecna?

It’s just so physical, like, my neck was strained so much because you’re just sitting like this [raises head up and back] for three days. Obviously, I’m on a harness, and we had to rehearse that to make that work well. I became so close with all the stunt teams — this was their biggest sequence of the season. It was a monthlong choreographed dance. And getting to work with Jamie for the first time face-to-face was incredible. He’s an amazing actor, and it makes it easier for me to be scared of him, because he’s so terrifying. I mean, off camera, I did not want to go near him. I just gave him his space.

When we spoke on set, you said you’d been working with an acting coach. Was one of the reasons to work out all this physicality?

Yeah, for sure. How do I make this stuff look like it’s real-ish — like, believable, but it’s so supernatural and otherworldly. We worked with animals a lot. When I was getting into the powers thing, I would like grunt and channel a silverback gorilla, so it felt like completely not this little innocent Will that we know. You get to see that evolve later on — which was also a thing I had to be mindful about, because, not to dive into too many spoilers, but I was making sure the powers evolve properly as he’s learning to use them and learning how to hone them.

My read was that Will’s ability to access these powers was really unlocked once he accepts himself as a gay person. How did you see it?

Of course! It was so beautifully written. I think this is one of the best gay characters we’ve ever received in media. It makes me so excited for all the queer people out there to have a character like this to look up to. I would have loved to have someone like this, because he is not just this one tone, defined by his gayness — which I found so many times in the media, and I was like, that’s not me. You’re not just gay and that’s your whole life. That’s a piece of Will — of course, a huge piece of him. But it’s not everything. Accepting his identity allowed him to unleash this strength within him. That’s a trope that that goes way beyond queerness, and I think can resonate with so many people. Matt Duffer, he was like, “It resonates with me, and I’m not gay.” Just learning to accept yourself, that resonates with anyone.

The story Robin shares with Will in the tunnels — what was that like for you to hear?

I didn’t expect to feel as emotional as I did. When I watched Episode 4 with my sister, she was sobbing through that whole Robin speech scene. It just made me well up so much, realizing how real it feels to my own life.

You hadn’t worked much at all with Maya Hawke before this season. What was that like?

Oh, the best! I adore that woman. I had such a friend-crush on her through the years. She definitely was a role model for me in real life. She has two iconic parents who who have related lots of knowledge onto her. I was like a sponge around her, taking all the knowledge, and I loved it.

The opening sequence of the season, when we flashback to Season 1 and see Will get captured by the Demogorgon and encounter Vecna for the first time — how much were you involved with that?

Pretty involved. I wasn’t working on any of the days that the young actor [playing young Will] was, but they had me come each time to guide and direct him. The Duffers were like, “It’s all you.” And I was like, “Oh shit, really?” Then I got to reflect on, like, How do I work? How do I breathe? How do I show fear? And how did I do that as a young kid? Really get into the nitty gritty of my work and relay this to this kid to make him understand it. He was incredible, and so adorable.

And then did you do any face-replacement work?

The face replacement was in a tent on a separate day. They had me sit still in a chair with a camera, and they were like, “OK, now show fear of the Demogorgon. And you’re looking back.” Just every little technical detail.

There’s a moment in the first trailer where the camera’s tight on Will’s face and he’s screaming, “Run!” — and you look as absolutely terrified as anyone I’ve seen. First, I presume that’s from the second half of the show? 

Mmmhmm.

So what is it like to do that kind of thing, to get yourself into a place where you are so terrified?

Insane. You just have to be so vulnerable. This was, again, with the animal work, where I kind of can’t be Will. He’s too soft and sweet. So I’m channeling this, like [starts breathing deeply and energetically] gorilla physicality, and becoming something else. Also there’s paparazzi, and I’m yelling so loud across this field that they got video all the way down to the road of someone yelling. I remember it going a little viral on social media last year, and people being like, “Who is saying ‘run’?” I have to get that anxiety out of my head, of like, “Oh shit. There’s people videoing this, and I might spoil something.”

How has doing all that work changed your perception of yourself as an actor?

It was just the most challenges I’ve ever had, playing things that I can’t reference to anything in my personal life, and seeing like, can I still do it? I just really tried to care the most I have about this character and really understand not just that he’s scared of Vecna, but he’s dealing with all these traumas. I mean, you saw those first five minutes. That is so traumatizing in itself, and then it’s compiled with his abusive father and being bullied at school and being excluded from his friends and struggling with his self-identity.

When I spoke to Finn Wolfhard for our cover story, he told me that he was getting together with you, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo in a few days to watch Episode 4. What was that experience like?

I had seen it, like, three times already, but they hadn’t. We were all sitting on a hotel bed together, and I was just side-eyeing all of them to see their reactions. They were screaming, grabbing each other. And then, like, when it ended, they were like [clapping], “The Duffers did it again! They never miss.” I hope we get to watch the finale together.

So the first time you watched this episode, what was that experience like for you?

The first time, I have to watch it alone, because I’m so self-critical, I will not enjoy it with someone else. I’m just analyzing everything, and regretting everything. Once I put that aside, I can watch it a little bit more as just a viewer. Watching with my sister the third time was the most I just got lost in the story.

The part where it cuts to the home movies of young young Will, meeting Mike for the first time, making Castle Byers with his brother — how aware were you of that sequence?

Oh, my God, I was all over it. I was like, “Guys, have you cast the young Will yet? Have you cast the young Will yet? Have you cast the young Mike? I need to see! I need to see!” They were like, “It’s so difficult. We cannot find anyone that looks like you guys.” It was a last minute casting right before they filmed that sequence. Because people know what we look like young, so it was hard to make it believable. But I think they found pretty realistic young versions of us, and that young Will was a different young Will than the beginning of Season 5 young Will. It was really fun to just keep getting to meet these younger versions of me. Oh, he was so adorable.

This interview has been edited and condensed.