Stranger Things’ Duffer Bros. on Reaction to Will Coming Out as Gay

Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer weren’t quite ready for some strange reactions.

The sibling duo behind Netflix’s hit Stranger Things candidly shared their response to the backlash the show experienced after Noah Schnapp’s Will Byers came out in the final season.

“No is the honest truth,” Matt told Variety in an interview published Jan. 1 on whether they expected homophobic backlash. “Because it is, as Ross said, something we’ve been building for a really long time. I always say, Ross and I are many things, but subtle is not one of those things!”

Matt and Ross reiterated that the scene was one they’d “been building to for nine years,” with Ross adding, “It was a really important scene for us, and a really important scene for Noah—not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view.”

As the brothers explained, in order for Will, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) and Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) to defeat the evil Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), they had to fully embrace who they were inside—especially the character of Will.