'Stranger Things' creators clarify Mike and Will's relationship following series finale

The creators of Stranger Things have addressed years of speculation surrounding the relationship between Mike Wheeler and Will Byers, offering clarity on the long-debated “Byler” fandom following the series finale.

For much of the show’s run, fans have closely analysed the emotional bond between Mike and Will, with online communities convinced the story was building towards a romantic outcome. 

In an exclusive interview with Collider, the Duffer Brothers were asked how aware they were of the Byler fandom and whether outside speculation ever influenced their storytelling. “For us, there’s always noise,” Matt Duffer said. “But when we sit down to write a season, the goal is — I mean, you have to block it out, and you have to tell the story that you are always intending to tell.”

He added that the arc for Will Byers had been carefully mapped out from the start. “This story and the story of Will has been planned and has been building to this moment for eight years now,” Duffer explained. “So, that’s all we really wanted to do, was to just be truthful to what we wanted to do and what we’d always been planning to.”

While the final season made Will’s sexuality explicit and central to his character development, the Duffers confirmed that a romantic storyline between Will and Mike was never part of the plan. Instead, the series maintained its focus on Mike’s relationship with Eleven, resisting any shift driven by online discourse.

Stranger Things is now available to stream in full on Netflix.