Stranger Things Creators Reveal Whether Mike Understood He’s Will’s Crush in Coming Out Scene (Exclusive)

What exactly does Mike (Finn Wolfhard) know during Will’s (Noah Schnapp) coming out scene? Ross Duffer breaks down the powerful moment

Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in season 4 (left); Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler in ‘Stranger Things’ season 5 (right).Credit : 

Courtesy of Netflix (2)

NEED TO KNOW

A huge moment happens for Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) in season 5, Volume 2 of Stranger Things
The co-creators open up to PEOPLE about what the other characters were thinking during the pivotal scene
Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things season 5 are streaming now on Netflix

Will (Noah Schnapp) makes a big confession in Volume 2 of Stranger Things season 5, but does the magnitude of what he reveals fully sink in for Mike (Finn Wolfhard)?

In episode 7, Will tells his loved ones that he’s gay. During the monologue to Will’s mom Joyce (Winona Ryder), brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) and then his friends, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Max (Sadie Sink), Robin (Maya Hawke), Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Steve (Joe Keery), he admits that he “had this crush on someone even though I know, I know they’re not like me, but then I realized, he’s just my Tammy.”

Tammy refers to a story Robin (Maya Hawke) told Will about her own coming out journey. In the moment when Will confessed to crushing on a friend, the camera panned to Mike’s face. When asked if that was a move meant to indicate to the audience that Mike understands Will’s crush was on him, Ross Duffer, who created the hit series with his brother Matt, tells PEOPLE, “That was the intent.”

“Once Will is talking about Tammy and all that and his experience, yeah, it’s Mike — and his friends — all realizing and understanding now for the first time, even if Mike has been somewhat oblivious over these years, what his friend is saying,” Ross says.

Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler and Noah Schnapp as Will Byers in ‘Stranger Things’ season 5.

Courtesy of Netflix

“He’s clocking what Will felt over the years,” Ross adds of what’s going through Mike’s mind in that moment.

But the focus of that scene is larger than just Mike. “It’s about Will understanding who he is and being less fearful and expressing himself to all his friends and family,” Ross says.

In the scene, Will gathers all his loved ones to share his truth before they disperse to fight Vecna one last time.

“I haven’t told any of you this because I don’t want you to see me differently, but the truth is I am different. I just pretended like I wasn’t because I didn’t wanna be. I wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to be like my friends, and I am like you. I’m like you in almost every way,” Will says in the emotional scene.

“We like Milk Duds in our popcorn with extra butter, and we like drinking Coke with Pop Rocks, and we like bike races and trading comics and NASA and Steve Martin and Lucky Charms and literally all the same things. I just…. I don’t like girls.”

Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) in ‘Stranger Things’ season 5.Netflix/YouTube

Schnapp told PEOPLE that he “cried” when he read Will’s monologue for the first time and felt it was “perfect.”

“I was nervous,” Schnapp said. “I was like, ‘How are they going to write that?’ But I read it, and I just cried reading it, and I was like, ‘This is perfect. They did it.’ There’s no notes.”

“It’s so impressive,” he said of the Duffer brothers. “They told me they went to some queer family and friends to help understand how to do it right.”

The actor, who came out as gay in 2023 and has said that his character helped him accept himself, also liked how the scene itself “wasn’t just a sob fest.”

“He was happy through the beginning of it, kind of reliving those memories, and it makes it hit harder almost.”

Volumes 1 and 2 of Stranger Things season 5 are streaming now on Netflix. The finale drops Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. ET.