Stranger Thing actor Brett Gelman, who plays investigative reporter Murray Bauman in the flagship Netflix series, is letting the world know he’s team Byler — if the circumstances are right, that is.
Should the universe align, Gelman said he’s all for Byler happening. He just doesn’t want to see any broken hearts happen in order for Byler to come to fruition.
“I am for Byler if Byler is for Byler. If it’s a match then it should be so. I’m not for Byler if Mike isn’t for it because then Will gets hurt,” the actor explained in a post on Twitter. “And I also don’t want El to have a broken heart. But if Byler is what is meant to be then I ship Byler BIG TIME!!!”
If you don’t what Byler refers to, allow us to explain. In the fourth season of Stranger Things, there’ve been some not-so-subtle scenes indicating that Noah Schnapp’s Will Byers has romantic feelings for his best friend, Finn Wolfhard’s Mike Wheeler.
And if Will secretly choking back tears in a car ride with Mike after discussing Mike’s relationship with Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven wasn’t enough to convince you of this reality, Schnapp has recently outwardly confirmed that the love triangle is the real deal; Will is a gay character and he likes Mike. Hence we have the moniker Byler, which is a combination of Will and Mike’s last names: Byers and Wheeler.
It’s truly a complicated situation because Mike has an on-again-off-again (we think) girlfriend in the superpowered Eleven. And even if Mike was single, he may not be inclined to reciprocate Will’s romantic feelings by virtue of Mike possibly simply being straight. We don’t have any indication in the show that Mike is closeted or bisexual — so far — so it frankly isn’t looking like the Byler situation will pan out to be anything other than unrequited love at the moment (but you never know). Then again, there was that minor subplot of Mike not signing his letters to Eleven with “love,” so maybe Will can have a little hope.
Stranger Things season four part two is on Netflix now.