‘Stranger Things’ actor Noah Schnapp comes out as gay

Actor Noah Schnapp, famous for his role as Will Byers on “Stranger Things,” came out as gay Thursday in a TikTok video.

“When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years ... all they said was, ‘We knew,’” he wrote over the video.

Schnapp, 18, also captioned the video, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought” in a reference to the character. Schnapp previously said of Will, “It’s 100% clear that he is gay.”

Prior to his role on “Stranger Things,” the actor debuted as a minor character in Steven Spielberg’s 2015 film “Bridge of Spies” and voiced Charlie Brown in “The Peanuts Movie” that same year.

Schnapp did not say anything in the video. The background voice, which Schnapp lip-synced, came from another TikTok user’s video and said, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, it will never be that serious.”

The audio is part of a TikTok trend, in which people make major life announcements with the “never that serious” lines.

In a July 2022 interview with Variety, Schnapp discussed Will extensively, touching on the character’s relationship with his best friend, Mike, and his sexuality, which had been a talking point for the first three seasons of “Stranger Things” before it was essentially confirmed in the fourth season.

“All his friends, they all have girlfriends and they all fit into their different clubs,” he told the outlet. “Will has never really found anywhere to fit in. I think that’s why so many people come up to me and tell me that they love Will and they resonate with him so much, because it’s such a real character.”