The creators of Stranger ThingsMatt and Ross Duffer, responded to fans’ criticism of Will Byers’ coming out scene. They say they were surprised by the reaction, but they defend the episode.

All the episodes of the fifth and final season of the successful science fiction series have already been released on Netflix, which resume the growing battle of the Hawkins group against Vecna ​​and the consequences of the emergence of the Other Side in the town. The final episode of the series, titled “Chapter Eight: This Side,” premiered on New Year’s Day.

The episodes were divided into different installments and Volume 1 was released in November, which marked Netflix’s biggest premiere week for an English-language series.

The second batch of episodes of the fifth and final season premiered on December 26, but registered an evident decline in positive audience opinions. On the review site Rotten Tomatoes, the overall score stood at 56 percent at the time of writing, down from 70 previously. This is the lowest audience rating for any season of the series; The first season has 97 percent of the audience, the second 94 percent, the third 89 percent and the fourth 90 percent.

Additionally, episode seven, titled “Chapter Seven: The Bridge,” in which Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) comes out as gay to his friends and family, has become the lowest-rated episode of the entire series, and many have complained online that the series has become “woke.”

In a new interview after the premiere of the series finale Stranger Things the Duffer brothers spoke about the importance of the scene to them and why they remain “proud” of the episode and Schnapp’s “vulnerable performance.”

“The coming out scene is something we’ve been building for nine years. It was a pretty important scene for us, and a very important scene for Noah, not only from a thematic point of view, but also from a narrative point of view,” Ross Duffer told Variety.

Furthermore, he stated: “This series has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and to overcome this evil, Vecna, in many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and evil of society. And for our characters to overcome it, in the end it is about hugging themselves, and then also hugging each other and coming together.”

In the scene, Will confesses to his friends that Vecna, the series’ antagonist, has been using his fear of revealing his sexuality to friends and family to isolate and manipulate him, thus exploiting his terror of rejection to control him. He explains to them, as they prepare for their final confrontation with Vecna, that keeping him hidden has made him vulnerable and that speaking it out loud will prove that his fears of being abandoned are unfounded.

Matt Duffer described the scene as “the final step in Will’s journey” and, at the same time, “the key to defeating Vecna.”

“Volume 1 is really about self-acceptance, right? That’s the first step. And then the second step is that Will is talking to Robin, it’s something he wants to do. He’s trying to figure out how to come out, and he knows he needs to do it, and that’s the last step for him. And he finds the courage to be able to do it. And it’s the last insult to Vecna. That was the intention,” he argued.

“We are proud of the episode, and we are proud of the scene, and proud of Noah, who gave a very brave and very vulnerable performance,” said Ross Duffer.

Matt Duffer noted that what they were most concerned about was making sure Schnapp, who came out as gay in 2023, was “comfortable and happy with the scene.” “And when it was, we felt good,” he said.

However, he admitted that he had not anticipated the negative reaction that the scene would provoke.

“It’s not the honest truth,” he said. “Because it is, as Ross stated, something we have been building for a long time. I always say that Ross and I are many things, but subtle is not one of them.”

The final season sparked divided reactions among fans, with many questioning whether the series concluded leaving several unresolved narrative threads and plot inconsistencies.

In a three-star review, Nick Hilton of The Independentdescribed the production as “Netflix’s most important original intellectual property, which went from being a brilliant and influential growth story to becoming another generic adventure loaded with digital effects.”

All episodes of Stranger Things They are now available on Netflix.