Matt and Ross Duffer, the co-creators of the popular Netflix supernatural action series Stranger Things, defended the recently aired and long-awaited coming-out scene of its teenage character Will Byers after online commenters criticized the scene for seeming rushed and awkwardly written.

A few minutes before the end of the show’s penultimate episode, released last Christmas evening, the character Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) gathers all of the show’s protagonists and tells them that he needed to come out so that the season’s villain, a superpowered demonic humanoid named Vecna, can’t use his secret against him.

Related

Drag superstar Priyanka announced her engagement in this heartwarming video

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“I had this crush on someone, even though I know they’re not like me,” Byers says while looking at his best friend. Byers then recounts all the things he has in common with his closests friends and adds, “I just don’t like girls.” His fellow protagonists praise and hug him, and the scene ends.

Online commenters negatively review the episode, making it one of the lowest-rated episodes on the Internet Movie Database, according to Variety.

While some of the episode’s online critics made homophobic comments about Byers’ coming out, other viewers said that the scene — which has been five seasons in the making — seemed awkwardly crammed into the final minutes of the series’ second-to-last episode, somewhat out of place in the season’s otherwise do-or-die pacing, and excessively sentimental. Others noted that Byers never actually utters the words “I’m gay” and that the other characters’ unanimous acceptance of his news seemed unrealistic considering the anti-gay sentiment that permeated U.S. culture during the show’s 1980s time period, which coincides with the start of the AIDS epidemic.

In an interview with Variety, the show’s co-creators Ross and Matt Duffer said that they had been building towards the scene for a very long time and added, “[We] are many things, but subtle is not one of those things!” They also praised Schnapp, who came out as gay in 2023, for his “vulnerable” performance in the scene.

“The coming out scene is something we’ve been building to for nine years now. 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,” Ross Duffer said.

“This show has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and in order to overcome this evil, Vecna, in so many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society. And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together,” Ross Duffer added.

The scene was “the final step in Will’s journey, and Will is, in so many ways, the key to defeating Vecna,” said Matt Duffer. “Volume 1 is really about self-acceptance, right? I mean, that’s sort of step one. And then step two is Will is talking to [a lesbian teen character] Robin — it’s something that he wants to do. He’s trying to figure out how to come out, and he knows that he needs to do that, and that that’s the final step for him. And he finds the courage to be able to do it. And it’s really the ultimate f**k you to Vecna. That was the intention.”

Matt Duffer continued, “We were so concerned about getting it right. There were a lot of things that went into it. I mean, we’re definitely nervous about how it’s going to go over with everyone. But not as nervous as we were handing it over to Noah. Because ultimately, it needed to resonate and be truthful for him. We really were writing it to and for Noah. He wrote us sobbing after he read it. So it really worked and resonated for him, which was great.”

“On the day, frankly, there wasn’t really much direction at all. Noah spent a long time — I mean, months — prepping for that scene, that moment. Luckily, that script was done well in advance. I know he did a lot of work himself,” Matt Duffer said. “And most of what’s in there is the first take.”

Matt Duffer said he and his brother “spent longer writing” the coming out scene than any other.

“I think that’s where Ross and I were most sensitive, was Noah — because of how close to home this hit for him,” Matt Duffer said. “And our goal was to make sure that he was comfortable and happy with the scene. And when he was, we felt good about it. I’ve been texting with him a lot, but texting with him specifically after that scene and after that episode aired. And he’s in a really good place. He’s very proud of the scene, and we’re proud of the scene.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.