‘Stranger Things’ cast is thrilled after seeing photos from season 1
The cast of Stranger Things reminisce about Season 1 and share their heartfelt reactions to old photos.
NEW YORK – Noah Schnapp was in a wild camp when Season 1 of “Stranger Things” debuted on Netflix in July 2016.
“I don’t have a cell phone, so I’m not part of the real world. My parents call me three times in the summer,” Schnapp, 21, recalled while playing a leisurely game of Jenga in a Union Square cafe. But gradually, “I remember my mom sending me an email saying, ‘Noah, you have a fan page and you’ve reached 10,000 followers!'” I was like, “What?!”
Nine years and nearly 24 million Instagram followers later, Schnapp is preparing to say goodbye to Will Byers, the bushy-haired young man who spent five seasons on the sci-fi phenomenon Stranger Things.
As we sit under a shelf filled with Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer Quest, the young actor oscillates between excitement and good-natured panic. After three new episodes air on Christmas Day, Stranger Things will conclude with a huge finale on December 31st. And in the spring, Schnapp will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he plans to study film.
“I keep repeating the cycle of, ‘Oh, my life is over! I’m so sad!'” Schnapp says. “But then you’re like, ‘Oh, anything can happen now!'” If there was another season of “Stranger Things,” it would be exhausting. Now is the perfect time to end it and it will be a great fresh start for next year. ”
Noah Schnapp is learning not to derive self-worth from social media
Last month’s Volume 1 cliffhanger saw Will access his newfound mystical powers to battle the Demogorgon and save his friends. This was a startling revelation for a character who had been looked down upon as cowardly and weak ever since he was kidnapped and drawn into the Upside Down in Season 1.
For years, Schnapp was hesitant to voice his concerns about Will to series creators Matt and Ross Duffer. But before Season 5, he confidently called them out.
“I thought, ‘Guys, the show starts with him, but after Season 3, they just kind of sideline him. Can we figure out why he was the first victim?'” Schnapp recalls. Volume 2 will “explore Will’s internal stakes and answer the question of why things like this exist. The similarities between Will and Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) are a bit like Harry Potter and Voldemort,” he teases.
The remaining episodes also explore Will’s romantic longing for his best friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard). The character has gradually come to terms with his queer identity, much like Schnapp, who came out in a TikTok video in 2023. But for years before that, Schnapp remembers being hounded by journalists about his sexuality.
“It was weird for an interviewer to ask a 12-year-old, ‘Do you think Will is gay? Do you identify with the character? And are you gay?'” he says. “It was very personal and over the top.”
Coming out can be difficult enough for queer kids because they worry about the impact it will have on their personal relationships.
“But on top of that, I was like, ‘Oh, but I also have a full-time job that supports my whole life,'” Schnapp recalls. “How is this going to impact my future and my ability to work and be seen as something other than a queer kid?” It was weird having to have conversations with friends and family, as well as my publicists and managers, like, ‘Is it okay for me to come out publicly, or do I have to stay hidden for the rest of my career?’ ”
Like most of his Stranger Things castmates, Schnapp has endured invasive fan treatment. When I was a freshman in college, I remember students banging on his door in the middle of the night and screaming his name. Before today’s interview, a young woman waited outside the bathroom and cornered him to take a selfie, which he politely complied with.
“For the most part, everyone is very respectful, but people often go overboard,” Schnapp says. He would reply to every message and spend hours searching his name on social media to see what people were saying. However, he has since taken a step back from most platforms.
“My vision board for 2026 is ‘Social media is not the real world,'” Schnapp says. “You have to learn to set boundaries for your own mental health. It’s not healthy to internalize every opinion in the world every 10 seconds.”
Even in the new season, friends will ask him if he’s seen fan edits or memes about Will’s abilities. But he only sees what people send him.
“That validation is fickle and goes up and down,” Schnapp says. “When you’re high, people want you; when you’re low, people don’t want you. You have to learn not to derive your value from people who don’t know you.”
‘Stranger Things’ star says growing up in the spotlight is ‘not easy’
Schnapp admires his Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink, who has a “healthy relationship” with fame. He also leans on Millie Bobby Brown and Maya Hawke, both of whom have similarly endured varying degrees of public scrutiny and curiosity.
“Growing up in the public eye is difficult,” Schnapp says. “You don’t know yourself and you don’t understand anything. And now you’re expected to know everything and have all the answers. I’ve always felt shame for saying the wrong thing or not taking something seriously that I should have. And that stays with me forever. People grow and learn, and it’s not easy to do that publicly.”
He agrees with Ariana Grande’s argument that all child actors should undergo mandatory treatment. For a while, he thought he was a “happy, lucky kid” and didn’t need a therapist, but then he got one.
“After a number of years, you start to say, ‘No, this is an abnormal life, and you need some kind of support system other than your parents,'” Schnapp says. “Growing up, I never understood why people were depressed, or turned to drugs, or had eating disorders. As I get older, I understand how the pressures of Hollywood can create such situations. I always tell my parents, ‘You’ll never live in LA. You’ll get lost.'”
The actor is based in New York, where he consumes a healthy diet of pop culture. After watching “All of Us Strangers,” she cried non-stop, and is embarrassed to say that she only recently saw “Wicked” on Broadway. Although he would like to try his hand at writing and directing someday, he says his main goal for 2026 is to “take more acting classes and get off this damn phone.”
“I’ll probably never do another blockbuster like ‘Stranger Things,'” Schnapp admits. “This is the biggest show in the world! We don’t expect it to continue to compete for that level of viewership.
“But now we have the opportunity to get smaller indie films and get theatrical releases. I’m grateful that Stranger Things put me in a good place financially for the rest of my life. What more could I ask for?”
