Warning! Some Stranger Things Season 4 SPOILERS are below. Go play D&D and come back once you’ve caught up on the new season!
After a ridiculously long wait, Stranger Things Season 4 finally hit Netflix last weekend as part of the 2022 Netflix TV schedule, and while some have disliked the amount of storylines being juggled, many critics are basically in agreement about what the new episodes do right. While there are tons of things Stranger Things fans needed to remember about Season 3 before digging into this season, one aspect that was on the minds of many viewers was the theory that Will (played by Noah Schnapp) would eventually be revealed to be gay. With the fourth season now strengthening that belief, executive producer Shawn Levy has shared his thoughts on it, and fans will probably like his response.
What Did Stranger Things’ Shawn Levy Say About Will Being Gay?
Fans have had theories about Will being gay since Stranger Things Season 3, during an episode that was actually directed by the sci-fi / fantasy’s executive producer, Shawn Levy. That episode saw Will and Mike have an argument about their friendship and Mike’s growing relationship with Eleven after the gang had a disappointing game of D&D. Mike soon yells at Will, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!,” which prompted fans to consider that Will might be revealed to be gay at some point. Now that Season 4 seems to have provided more hints that such a revelation is coming from the youngster, Levy has told Entertainment Weekly:
Ever since [Season 3], a lot of these questions have come up. Without getting into where we go later in Season 4 [Volume II], I guess I'll just say that 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 I feeling those bread crumbs of plot and character, it's probably no accident.
So, it would seem, from what Levy said, that Stranger Things is, in fact, going to let viewers in on the fact that Will is gay at some point, though with where things stand by the end of Volume I that has not happened just yet.
The first seven episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 go a long way in showing us that all of the kids involved are outsiders of some sort, with the added sadness of the core group being separated, but Will and Eleven seem to be having the worst time of it in their new town and high school in California. Both are basically friendless, with the exception of each other, and Eleven is actively being bullied by a group of nasty kids, with Will being seemingly invisible to most of his classmates.
During Episode 5 of the new season, however, after Mike has joined them for a spring break visit that went really bad, we get even more hints that Will is coming to terms with both how to tell his friends and family that he’s gay, and maybe even struggling with his best friend being attracted to Eleven, while Will is actually attracted to Mike. The buddies have a conversation about Eleven being bullied which intimates that Will is talking about something he’s been keeping from everyone, leading many fans to think him coming out soon is a given.
As Shawn Levy said in his interview, nothing we see on Stranger Things is an accident, and while he admits that the Season 3 moment that originally led some fans to think Will might be gay wasn’t meant as such, it does appear that the writers have now taken viewer interest in that potential storyline to heart. We can see what will be revealed by Stranger Things Volume II when it hits Netflix on July 1.
