Stranger Things star adds to doubt over ‘Byler’: ‘Just very good friends’

Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo is casting further doubt on ‘Byler’ becoming a reality in season five of the sci-fi smash, stating that he sees the Mike Wheeler and Will Byers as “just very good friends”.

For years, a large and vocal subsection of the Stranger Things fandom have been calling for childhood besties Mike and Will, played by Finn Wolfhard and Noah Schnapp respectively, to become more than “just very good friends”.

The demands of self-styled ‘Byler’ shippers have reached fever pitch in the lead up to the show’s fifth and final season, after season four confirmed that Will is gay and in love with Mike.

As the first four episodes of the series didn’t seem to confirm whether or not there’s any chance of Mike and Will getting together, ‘Byler’ fans have been waiting with baited breath for the season’s second half for some solid answers.

Yet Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Mike and Will’s friend Dustin Henderson, has dampened hopes that the friends will become anything more than platonic.

Speaking to Elite Daily about the wildest Stranger Things fan theories he has heard, Matarazzo began by revealing that there is plenty of fans who want to see Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) get together.

“Man, there are some wild Stonathan theories, which aren’t really theories as much as they are just fanfic. People really want to see Joe Keery and Charlie Heaton make out. Whatever does it for you. Two very handsome men,” he said.

He then went on to address the long-standing theories about Will and Mike.

“I also find the Byler stuff very funny. I see them as just very good friends,” he suggested, to the sound of thousands of ‘Byler’ fans’ hearts breaking.

“Will is going through his own journey the way that a lot of young queer kids do in small towns, especially back in the day. It’s a very universal experience that a lot of gay kids probably go through. It’s like noticing a crush on a friend you grew up with and not being able to talk about it. There’s something more powerful there than just, ‘I wonder if they’re going to kiss.’”

Online, ‘Byler’ fans have reacted to Matarazzo’s remarks with what can only be described as unbridled rage. 

“I DONT CARE if the cast are throwing every possible scenario in the book at the [general audience] to make sure Byler is the biggest plot twist the show has ever seen. The way the cast talk about Byler is sickening,” fumed one fan on X, formerly Twitter.

“Whether or not Byler happens Gaten is SEVERELY downplaying Will’s feelings. He doesn’t have a crush. He has been head over heels in love with Mike since AT LEAST season 3. My heart just sunk,” wrote a second disappointed fan.

A third wrote: “As a queer fan seeing once again Will’s canon queerness and experience watered down and treated like a joke doesn’t sit right with me.”

Others are remaining defiant in their hope that Byler becomes canon by the end of Stranger Things season five. “What Gaten said didn’t give me Byler doubt it just made me really f**king p***ed,” one fan raged. 

Last week, Schnapp himself made a rare comment on the fan theory and Will’s story, coyly stating that the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, “close it really well”.

“Oh man, are we live? Um,” he said to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live. “I think… I mean look, it’s like a real kind of authentic representation of a queer kid in the ‘80s. I’ve dealt with that myself, being in love with a friend and maybe they don’t love you back or they feel differently.”

He continued: “I’m not gonna spoil anything but [showrunners] The Duffers close it really well.”

The next three episodes of Stranger Things season five are released on Netflix on 25 December in the US and 26 December in the UK. The finale will steam on 31 December in the US and 1 January in the UK.

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