The Strange Case of Will Byers Thirst Traps
Maaryah Rashid, Co-Deputy Editor, BA Politics and International Relations
If your social media feeds are anything like mine, you would have also witnessed the frenzied excitement surrounding the first four episodes of Netflix’s Stranger Things, season five; from fan edits, to predictions for the next four episodes, to endless conspiracy theories, and even fantasy storylines. Let’s just say, the fans do not hold back.
In all honesty, scrolling through all of this was quite entertaining… until I came across what I can only describe as an absolute pop culture atrocity: A Will Byers thirst trap. I was caught off guard. Just because Will finally got a decent haircut, does not excuse the romanticisation of a character played by a well known Zionist.
Noah Schnapp who stars in the infamous Stranger Things series, plays Will Byers; a boyfriend stealing, one dimensional, bland teenage boy- who the chaos of this series often centres around. So, why are fans suddenly so obsessed with him? Will Byers magically went from being as dry as a piece of un-buttered toast, to as hot as Tabasco sauce, to which thousands of fans and creators of these fan-edits would agree. A TikTok creator @ipsvco for instance, made a video dedicated to Will Byers, featuring a montage of slow motion clips of Will from season five, episode four, with ‘Ayo Technology’ by 50 cent playing in the background.
There’s really only one explanation for this: pretty privilege.
In October 2023, Schnapp posted on Instagram expressing unequivocal support for Israel, writing: “You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism. It shouldn’t be a difficult choice. Shame on you.”
A month later, in November 2023, another video of Schnapp went viral; this time showing him and a group of friends laughing while holding stickers that read “Zionism is Sexy” and “Hamas is ISIS,” further fuelling public backlash.
The severity of these issues seems to have been disregarded by the people thirsting over Schnapp’s character online. So, here’s a brief reminder of what Zionism represents in practice. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Israeli policies carried out under the banner of Zionism; including illegal settlement expansion, home demolitions, forced displacement, and discriminatory laws; meet the threshold for apartheid and persecution, systematically undermining Palestinians’ rights. Likewise, the Israeli human-rights organisation B’Tselem reported in 2021 that Israel operates ‘a single regime’ designed to maintain ‘the supremacy of one group- Jews- over another- Palestinians,’ characterising this system as apartheid. Palestinians continue to face entrenched inequality and state violence in every aspect of life, from movement and land rights to housing and civil liberties; and more recently the two year long brutal genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Despite this, many fans have conveniently forgotten Schnapp’s actions or accepted the brief apology video he posted on TikTok in January 2024 which he has since deleted. In the video, Schnapp claims his political views were ‘misconstrued’ and says he wants peace for ‘all innocent people.’ The message felt noticeably forced and strategically timed: it followed widespread calls to boycott Stranger Things after his behaviour in late 2023, and it appeared just as production for the final season began.
Schnapp’s embarrassing and politically tone-deaf digital footprint opens up a wider conversation about celebrity idolisation. In an increasingly digital world where mass atrocities are impossible to ignore, the romanticisation and praise of celebrities with massive platforms feels dystopian. If the people we elevate aren’t using their influence for anything beyond entertainment, then what exactly are they contributing? How are they using their privilege to support those who are less fortunate? And why are we still praising celebrities who hold harmful political views simply because ‘they’re hot’?
