Noah Schnapp Calls Millie Bobby Brown ‘My Best Friend for Life’ at “Stranger Things”’ Final Season Premiere (Exclusive)
NEED TO KNOW
- Noah Schnapp gushed over his friendship with Millie Bobby Brown and the cast of Stranger Things at the final season premiere in Hollywood on Nov. 6
- Schnapp tells PEOPLE Brown is his “best friend for life” after they first started working together on the show 10 years ago
- The three-part release of season 5 begins with Volume 1 dropping on Netflix on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m ET
Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown are bonded forever.
The two actors gathered with their Stranger Things costars at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday, Nov. 6, to celebrate the premiere of the fifth and final season of the beloved Netflix series. A decade after first taking on the role of Will Byers at age 11, Schnapp, now 21, is reflecting on the impact that the show has had on him and its fans.
“It’s a show at its core about friendship and connection and belonging and embracing your differences, and it just makes you feel a part of something,” he told PEOPLE on the red carpet. “It makes you feel empowered to be proud, to be different and proud to be who you are. I love that about it, and I think that’s why others do as well.”
That special on-camera bond among the characters — including the core group of Eleven (Brown), Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard), Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLaughlin) and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) — also applies in their personal lives. Schnapp says that is something he will cherish forever.
“I mean, of course Millie is my best friend for life,” he says. “But they all truly are just family to me, and it shows on screen. I mean, thank God we’re so close.”
He also reveals the advice he would give his younger self at the beginning of his career: “Just stay true to yourself.”
“Don’t let anyone dim that light that you have and be present and take it all in, because you’re going to blink and you’re going to be standing on the last season carpet and saying goodbye,” he continues.
Schnapp says when he received the first script for season 5 nearly two years ago, it exceeded his expectations. If he could describe his reaction in one word, it would be “unbelievable.”
“I remember I had people texting me before the scripts came out like, ‘Noah, watch out. You’re going to like this season,’” he recalls. “And I was like, ‘Oh, whatever, whatever.’ And then we got to the day before the table read, and I was reading it in the shower, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Like, calling my mom, ‘Oh my God, you have to read it,’ and freaking out. I was skimming it as I was getting ready in the shower.”
The final chapter of Stranger Things is set to release in three parts. It will feature a time jump to the fall of 1987, creators the Duffer Brothers previously revealed.
The star-studded cast also includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke.
Stranger Things season 5 premieres on Netflix with Volume 1 on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET, followed by Volume 2 on Dec. 25 and the finale on Dec. 31. Seasons 1 through 4 are now streaming on Netflix.
