Netflix
Noah Schnapp Explains How ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Poster Hinted at Will’s Huge Plot Twist
Warning: Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5 ahead!
As Stranger Things kicks off its final season, Noah Schnapp is giving fans a behind-the-scenes peek at one huge twist they may have missed — right in the marketing. The actor who plays Will Byers revealed that the Season 5 poster almost spoiled the midseason finale cliffhanger.
“It’s always supposed to kind of feel the vibe of the season and give an essence of where everyone’s characters stand in that era and chapter of our story,” Schnapp told Glamour in November 2025. “So yeah, you can see a strength in him on there. And obviously, they didn’t want to spoil it with any blood or anything, but as close as you can get. Everything is very intentional that we do.”
Fans who watched Vol. 1 of the season saw Will step into the spotlight in a way no one expected. In the finale of the first four episodes, emogorgons are wreaking havoc on the military base while Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) battles in the Upside Down. Suddenly, the creatures freeze mid-air — revealing that Will is telekinetically controlling them. By the episode’s end, he wipes blood from his nose, echoing the side effects of Eleven’s powers.
“I think people mistake fear for weakness. Will has had a lot of fear through the years, because of what he’s had to endure, but that doesn’t mean he’s weak,” Schnapp explained to Deadline. “He’s pushed through that and come out stronger, and he does it scared every time. He always comes back, and he never crumbles. So that is his strength, and I think he shows that in the end, that he is stronger than we all think.”
Co-creator Matt Duffer confirmed that Will’s journey is central to Season 5.
“When we first started talking about Season 5, we started talking about Will. He was a little bit more out of the picture in Season 4, but he’s a central character. He’s the character who kicked it all off, and a lot of this season was about going full circle and going back to the beginning, which raised questions about how he vanished and whatnot,” he explained.
“But more than that, this was about Will’s journey in terms of finding out really who he was, and coming to terms with that,” Duffer added. “So we liked the idea of tying that into some of the more supernatural elements, that in order to become his most powerful self, he had to also really come to terms with who he is.”
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