Fans are planning to boycott the fifth and final season of Stranger Things after one of the shows lead stars stirred the pot and caused a pretty big controversy.
You may remember hearing about it last year — Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers on the hit Netflix show, caused upset by making controversial statements regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. His stance on the whole thing is not a popular position to take on the matter to say the least, but the star made things worse for himself by printing out stickers saying “Zionism is sexy.” Needless to say, there’s been quite the backlash.
People online have banded together to express their disappointment and anger towards the star over his stance, although it’s Schnapp’s attitude regarding the conflict that has really gotten him into hot water with fans. Some even accused the Netflix star of “supporting genocide,” and there were calls to boycott the series at the time; and those calls to boycott Stranger Things only seem to have gotten louder since Schnapp released an apology.
Why are fans even more upset with Noah Schnapp since his apology?
Schnapp released an apology earlier this morning, via his TikTok account, in which he claims that his intentions had been misinterpreted. In the video, Schnapp attempts to clarify what he meant, whilst also somewhat admitting fault.
“ I feel like my thoughts and beliefs have been so far misconstrued from anything even close to what I believe […] I only want peace and safety and security for all innocent people affected by this conflict.”
You may be wondering why fans seem to somehow be more upset after Schnapp’s apology, but many have pointed out that the timing is a bit fishy. The video from Noah comes now, a week after the fifth season of Stranger Things began filming. Some fans suspect that the Netflix PR team might have had a hand in getting Schnapp to apologize. Of course, there’s no way to actually prove this.
Schnapp’s actions certainly could jeopardize the viewing figures for a show that has consistently broken Netflix records in terms of viewership figures. The PR team over at Netflix are probably working overtime to avoid a boycott right now, which raises doubts in the popular imagination about the sincerity of the apology video.
Fans also took issue with the content of the apology itself; Schnapp calls for peace on both sides, but over on X (formerly Twitter) the star’s detractors have argued that there’s no such thing as peace without first liberation.
At this point it seems too little too late, most people have already made up their mind. They are either going to boycott the show, or they’re not, and nothing Noah Schnapp says or does now is likely to change that.
