Netflix’sStranger Thingsfeatures a sprawling cast full of quirky and interesting characters. The series started out with three fairly distinct groups: the kids, Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown); the teens, Nancy (Natalia Dyer), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), and Steve (Joe Keery); and the adults, Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour). However, over the years, the characters have increasingly overlapped. Well, mostly.
One exception to this rule is Will and Steve. In four seasons ofStranger Things, they haven’t spoken to each other one-on-one. While there’s evidence that they’re familiar with each other — especially from the first episode of Season 3 when Steve helped the group of younger kids get into a scary movie in the Starcourt Mall — they haven’t actually had a conversation on-screen. Let’s look at how these two characters have managed to avoid talking to each other for all this time.
A (Separate) History of Will and Steve
Stranger Things
Stranger Thingshas featured Steve and Will since the beginning, but, for various reasons, they haven’t had the opportunity to speak one-on-one. Will disappeared atthe beginning of Season 1, and even if he hadn’t, Steve was several years older than Will, and at the time, wastoo busy being a jerk to Nancy and Will’s brother, Jonathan, to pay attention to Will.
Of course, by the end of the season, Will was back and Steve had turned over a new leaf, so in Season 2, it seemed that Steve and Will would have the chance to talk. Except that Will was possessed by the Mind Flayer. So whileSteve protects Dustin, Lucas, and Max (Sadie Sink), a new character that season, fromdemodogs, the Mind Flayeris being kept at bay by Will being sedated.
In Season 3, Will was mostly back to normal, but on-screen at least the two didn’t have much interaction outside of the one movie at the beginning of the season. Besides,Steve spent most of his time captured by the Sovietsso he was otherwise occupied. Then, in Season 4,Will and his family moved from Hawkins, Indiana to the West Coast, and therefore, once again, he and Steve didn’t have the opportunity to spend time together.
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Steve and Will Don’t Talk Much and Maybe That’s Okay
While Steve and Will haven’t had a chance to talk one-on-one, they also don’t have all that much in common. While Will is a Dungeons and Dragons-loving kid who isn’t popular, Steve is a good-looking guy who enjoyed his time in high school but has struggled afterward. In fact, onthe Reddit threadthat broke the news to fans that Steve and Will haven’t spoken, manyStranger Thingsfans weren’t all that surprised. Between the various things their characters were off doing across the four seasons and the fact that they seem to be on the opposite ends of the style spectrum — with Steve “The Hair” Harrington being a beacon of coolness and Will, with his bowl cut, being anything other than that —they don’t seem to have much to talk about.
Besides, some users on Reddit pointed out thatWill isn’t much of a character.One user, ZipZop_the_Fan, even wrote, “Will feelsmore like a macguffinthan a character.” There are even threads about howWill is poorly utilized and underdeveloped. From this perspective, Will hasn’t had much to do in the existing four seasons of the show. In addition to Steve,Will has also barely spoken to his supposed best friends Dustin and Lucas, a far bigger omission than him not talking to Steve. And while he came out to his brother, Jonathan, as gay in Season 4, it was a sad moment of him acknowledging that Mike, whom he is in love with, can’t love him back because Mike isn’t gay. As a result of all this,Will has been a subpar character that has been saddled with storylines that only revolve around his suffering.
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Also,Steve has been either terrible (in Season 1) or totally dismissive (in Seasons 2, 3, and 4) of Jonathan, Will’s brother, who has a big influence on Will. So the pair likely don’t have a lot to say to each other. In fact, more than one fan has observed that Steve hasn’t talked to Joyce Byers, Will’s mother, either. AnX (formerly Twitter) user, JD, observed that although Steve has “redeemed himself” since, he “used to bully” Jonathan and therefore, “him and the Byers may need some space.” Together these things make it entirely possible that Steve and Will have never spoken on screen.
Besides, there are many other characters that haven’t spoken to each other throughoutStranger Things' four seasons either. In addition to Joyce and Steve never talking, Steve has never spoken to Hopper either. This is a fact that seems a real shame since, unlike with Will, Steve appears to have a lot in common with Hopper. In addition, Will has never talked to Robin (Maya Hawke), the one other queer character on the show who might really understand his plight. While all this could change in thefifth and final season of the showas of now, Will, Steve, and many other characters are long overdue for a heart-to-heart.
