Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp just came out as gay — and shared the hilarious reactions of his friends and family in the process.
The actor appeared happy and unconcerned during a TikTok video posted Thursday afternoon in which he mouthed along to a sound bite of a woman saying “You know what it never was? That serious.”
It was the perfect sound for his text overlay, which marked the first time the 18-year-old publicly acknowledged being gay.
“When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know,’” he wrote.
@noahschnapp I guess I’m more similar to will than I thought
Schnapp’s coming out may be of particular interest to Stranger Things fans, who have spent four seasons watching his character, Will Byers, slowly go from reading as queer on screen to coming to understand that about himself.
The slow burn of it all was a point of contention among some fans, who repeatedly expressed concern over the years that the character would only be queer-coded and never be made explicitly queer in the narrative.
Meanwhile, it now appears Schnapp — who repeatedly defended the writers’ decision to have Will take his time figuring himself out — was grappling with questions of his own identity and coming out behind the scenes at the same time.
“I guess I’m more similar to will than I thought,” he wrote.
Who does Noah Schnapp play on Stranger Things?
Schnapp plays Will Byers, the boy at the center of the mystery of season one of the hit Netflix show.
Does Noah Schnapp have a twin?
Schnapp has a twin sister, Chloe.
Is Noah Schnapp religious?
Schnapp is Jewish.
