Will Byers

William Byers is a fictional character from the American science fiction horror drama television series Stranger Things. He is portrayed by Noah Schnapp. The character appeared in a recurring capacity in the first season before being promoted to the main cast in the second season.

Will, the younger brother of Jonathan Byers and the son of Joyce Byers and Lonnie Byers, is a shy, kind, and often timid boy. In the group's Dungeons & Dragons party, Will is the cleric, but later occasionally plays the role of Dungeon Master; he is referred to as "Will the Wise". In November 1983, he vanishes somewhere near "Mirkwood" after encountering a monster that escaped through a rift to the "Upside Down", an alternate dimension discovered by the Hawkins Laboratory scientists. Will begins communicating with Joyce through lightbulbs, so Joyce arranges a setup so Will can "talk" through the lights next to letters to create sentences. When Jim Hopper and Joyce venture into the Upside Down and find him unconscious, they revive him with CPR and bring him back to the real world, but he still has side effects from his time in the alternate dimension, including a slug emerging from his mouth and visions of the Upside Down.

Will is harassed by local residents, who dub him "Zombie Boy" after apparently returning from the dead (due to a hoax orchestrated by the people from Hawkins Laboratory). He has regular appointments with Dr. Sam Owens, who is examining any potential links Will may still have with the "Upside Down"; Will has regular visions of the Upside Down and a looming monster watching him. After one of these visions, he confides in Mike, who in turn reveals he is attempting to contact Eleven. Dustin shows the group a slug-like animal he found and named D'Artagnan, and Will realizes he heard it during one of his visions. Joyce's boyfriend Bob tells Will to "face his fears", not knowing what these fears actually are. When Will attempts to confront the monster, he is possessed by the Mind Flayer from the Upside Down. Will is found and woken up, but he acts strangely: scribbling the underground tunnels of Hawkins endlessly on paper after paper and demanding the house be kept cold. The next day he has a vision of Hopper trapped in the tunnels and Bob discovers what Will's drawings mean. Hopper is saved by the group, but scientists from Hawkins Lab set the tunnels on fire, causing Will to collapse and convulse in agony. Will has memory loss from the experience, and Dr. Owens refuses to destroy the tunnel as it would kill Will. Will instructs the scientists to head to a specific spot he cannot see, but it is revealed that the Mind Flayer is controlling him and has led everyone into a trap. Will is sedated to halt the Mind Flayer and rescued from the lab. He is able to communicate with the group through Morse code. Eventually he is freed from the Mind Flayer through the efforts of his mother, brother, and Nancy Wheeler, who burn the Mind Flayer out of him, a deduction they surmised after comments Will made about wanting to stay cold. He then goes to the Snow Ball while the Mind Flayer still watches him and his friends.

Will discovers he still has a link to the Upside Down and privately senses the Mind Flayer's presence. He grows upset with his friends for being in relationships and abandoning their childhood hobbies, such as D&D. He has a fight with Lucas and Mike when they make fun of him trying to play D&D. He and Mike argue, with Mike exclaiming, "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" Will is visibly hurt. Will looks at pictures of his friends dressed as Ghostbusters before destroying "Castle Byers". Will senses a possessed Billy and Heather attack the latter's parents and he realizes that the Mind Flayer is still alive. Will reveals his connection, and the group theorize that Billy is possessed and trap him in a sauna to discover the truth. Billy escapes and attacks them before fleeing when Eleven nearly subdues him. They later save Steve, Robin, and Dustin at Starcourt Mall. The Mind Flayer attacks and is later defeated by the group. At the end of the season, Will moves out of Hawkins with his mother, brother and Eleven after giving away his Dungeons & Dragons set to Erica Sinclair.