Fellas and fellows, is it queer to see your best friend wreathed in golden light every time you look at him?
According to the Duffer brothers, that answer is a firm no.
The ending of Stranger Things came out and left the majority of the fandom with a bitter taste in their mouths — and not just because of the finale’s lackluster writing. Ringing in the New Year, many were expecting confirmation of the slow-burning romantic subplot that had been brewing in the foreground of the first four and a half seasons. Instead, the rug was pulled out from under fans’ feet when an open ending left the two main characters unrequited, and the WLW relationship got together, only to be immediately broken up during the epilogue.
Mike Wheeler and Will Byers were each other’s confidants for the entire runtime of the show. They trusted each other in ways they never quite did with anyone else. Mike, at one point, trusted Will more than he trusted his girlfriend at the time — and couldn’t even tell her that he loved her without first consulting Will. The two fought in the rain, biked across town for each other, and seemed to love each other quite deeply. But when the finale came to a close, they were separated, and Will was paired with a boyfriend who was never shown on screen.
This ending, unfortunately, doesn’t come as a shock to some, because we’ve seen this play out across plenty of shows within the past decade. A prime example is Voltron: Legendary Defender, which aired on the same streaming service and wrapped on a very similar note. Many fans hoped that, in nearly 2026, queerness would finally be allowed to flourish on-screen in a show not centered on romance. Instead, the finale was another disappointing letdown.
Around the same time, Netflix also announced the removal of many beloved shows due to licensing expirations, including the queer-centric She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and several other pieces of content aimed at teens and younger audiences that include queer characters and storylines. Even if that’s most likely out of the platform’s control, it could not come at a worse time — because it implied much more than a simple licensing expiration.
Most of us know how protections for queer folks have been worn away — or outright removed — under the actions of the current administration. And it’s not a stretch to claim that the media produced and distributed at any given time is emblematic of the status quo that it’s made in. The creators chose to queerbait their characters: both with Mike and Will, and with the relationship between Vickie and Robin Buckley, who got together at the beginning of season five and were broken up during the epilogue.
Stranger Things sidelined its queer characters at the finish line, and the arcs that they were set on were left without solid conclusions. Will ending the show with a boyfriend falls flat when that boyfriend is never shown on screen. And when the two WLW characters in your show break up during a time skip, it feels like a cheap trick — like trying to bury your gays without being explicit about it.
Stranger Things fans deserved better than nearly a decade’s worth of queerbaiting. But hey — at least we were all crazy together.
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