Noah Schnapp got scene added to Stranger Things finale to round off Mike and Will relationship

Noah Schnapp has explained how he changed the Stranger Things finale to tie up the relationship between his character Will Byers, and his friend and long-time crush Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard).

In episode seven of season five, fans watched on teary-eyed as Will came out as gay to Mike and his other friends. During the scene, Will cryptically admitted to having a “crush on someone even though I know they’re not like me,” referring to Mike, his straight bestie.

While Mike didn’t openly acknowledge the remark as being about him, Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have since revealed that Mike did know who Will was referring to.

Even still, Noah Schnapp, who came out as gay himself back in 2023, has confessed that he didn’t think the moment adequately tied up the relationship between Will and Mike. It’s understandable, given that a fairly huge portion of the Stranger Things fandom have been ‘Byler’ shippers, aka fans who want to see Mike and Will become a couple.

“I did feel there was a little bit left unsaid with [episode seven],” Schnapp admitted in a new interview with PEOPLE.

“And I did actually speak to the Duffers, and they included a scene in the finale that wasn’t originally there to kind of close that story properly.”

The scene in question appears in the show’s epic, two-hour finale, when Mike and Will are precariously heading to the Abyss via the radio tower. The sweet moment sees Mike apologising to Will for not being there enough for him prior to his coming out, but Will bats him away, suggesting that he needed to find his own way in accepting his sexuality and telling his loved ones.

Will then asks whether the duo are still friends, to which Mike says: “Friends? No thanks.”

It’s a moment that likely put Byler shippers’ hearts in their throats, but then Mike quickly dashes any suggestion that they could be more than pals. “Best friends,” he tells a (quietly hopeful) Will.

Schnapp said that it was “nice to have that trust” between him and the Duffer brothers to add in the pivotal scene between the pair. “If something doesn’t work, or if something feels not right, you can speak to them, and they will work with you,” he said.

In a separate interview with the Los Angeles Times, the 21-year-old actor added that while the scene between them is just “a short little moment”, it felt necessary as there “wasn’t enough closure between Will and Mike”.

“So they included that moment, just so you get to see that Mike loves him as a best friend, and they will always be friends, which was nice. This relationship has been a slow burn for so many years, and so many people have an attachment and hopes for how it would come to a close,” he added.

“I just felt like it was necessary for them to close out their specific chapter together.”

Stranger Things season five is streaming now on Netflix.

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.