'Stranger Things' Directors Defend 'Coming Out' Scene That Had Fans Outraged
The popular Netflix franchise “Stranger Things” released the final episodes of their concluding season over the Christmas season, but those episodes weren’t the only things that came out recently.
Will Byers, a central character in the sci-fi mystery, announces to his friends and family that he is attracted to other boys in one of the last episodes.
The lengthy coming out scene ends with all of the protagonists tearfully accepting Will’s homosexuality despite the show’s setting in the 1980s, when American culture was still broadly opposed to such behavior.
The reactions to Will’s coming out scene… pic.twitter.com/7dvIaQEvuv
— Stranger News (@StrangerNews11) December 27, 2025
The moment disrupts the narrative of the characters gearing up for their final interdimensional battle against Vecna, a villain with paranormal powers who had been kidnapping children in his bid to take over the world.
Matt and Ross Duffer, the creators and directors of “Stranger Things,” defended the moment.
“The coming out scene is something we’ve been building to for nine years now,” Ross Duffer said in an interview with Variety.
“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 told the outlet on Jan. 1, referring to Noah Schnapp, the actor who plays Will.
But the episode with the coming out scene was also the lowest rated part of the series, earning a score of 5.6 out of 10 across 96,000 views, per Variety.
“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,” Duffer continued.
“And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together.”
Matt Duffer further claimed that the scene was “the final step in Will’s journey, and Will is, in so many ways, the key to defeating Vecna.”
He also defended scenes in which Will is talking to Robin Buckley, an older adolescent protagonist in “Stranger Things” who is dating a girl in the series.
“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,” Duffer said.
Many fans disagreed with the Duffer brothers, taking to social media to express their disappointment.
One user noted that the coming out scene lasted longer than the climactic final battle that ended the decade-long show.
Will’s coming out scene was longer than the Mind Flayer battle. pic.twitter.com/qWU6lJnywX
— The Cinéprism (@TheCineprism) January 3, 2026
Some expressed gratitude that LGBT narratives in general appear to have fallen out of favor in more recent years in Hollywood as part of a broader cultural backlash against wokeness.
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