By AJ Mun
Staff Writer
With the release of the “Stranger Things” series finale starting off 2026, fans have been buzzing with various opinions on how the show had come to a close. One plot line specifically being mourned, is that of a potential love story between Will Byers and Mike Wheeler, thus birthing the ship name “Byler”.
Prior to this show's most recently released season, it was widely known by audiences that Will had feelings for Mike. However, slowly over time, fans began going back into earlier seasons and picking up hints and breadcrumbs of Mike's possible sharing of those feelings.
One prime example of this could be Florence’s line in Season 1, “Only love makes you that crazy,” then having Mike say to Will in Season 2, “If we’re both going crazy, we’ll go crazy together, right?” Minor “coincidences” like that happen regularly throughout the show’s lifespan.
Some “coincidences” being “the Will voice.” Audiences noted that Mike would usually speak to Will in a softer and more gentle tone, even when they were kids. Another example would be the consistent use of blue and yellow to symbolize Mike and Will. These colors are a callback to Season 3 in which Robin says, “When blue meets yellow in the west.” While the quote has nothing specifically to do with Mike and Will, fans began to speculate it was foreshadowing Will's move to the west coast.
Additionally, Mike and Will’s arc has frame-for-frame line ups with scenes of Robin and Vickie, the only queer relationship on the show. Scenes show Robin and Will, looking at their respective love interests, Vickie and Mike, with a significant other of the opposite sex. Then, at the end of Season 4, all of the show’s canon couples can be seen standing together behind Eleven: Joyce and Hopper, Johnathan and Nancy, and beside them are Mike and Will.
Moving on to some of the last major evidence, is that the Duffer brothers tweeted that they did not believe in love at first sight, but Mike had claimed to have known that Eleven was the one when he met her, meanwhile Mike and Will had the perfect slow burn arc. Coincidence? I think not. Not to mention that Lucas quite literally says to the audience “I don’t believe in coincidences” further pushing the audience to believe that everything is intentional and specific.
Oh, and I almost forgot, right before Eleven, quite literally, dies, she tells Mike that she loves him and yet Mike still does not say it back despite them having an entire fight over his lack of use of the word in Season 3.
If you feel as though you need more evidence just type “Byler proof” into TikTok and those investigative reporters have done all the work for us, and compiled endless compilations of moments, parallels and signs that Mike and Will had a mutual romantic interest in one another.
Though “Byler” may not have come to fruition in front of our eyes, it cannot be denied that their love could’ve been monumental in terms of representation in popular television. The show premiered in July 2016. In those 10 years, fans have grown up alongside these characters and watched them grow in return.
One could easily imagine how much of an impact it could have had on current, and future, audiences to have seen their friendship blossomed into something more. Not to mention the impact it would have had to have seen the subtle questioning of Mike’s sexuality and his coming to terms with realizing that he had always treated Will differently than anyone else would have.
Just think of how rewarding it would have been to have seen a full confession of love on that radio tower instead of a corny “best friends” line. It was quite literally the end of the world, if ever a time for it to happen, it was then.
It isn’t that Mike and Eleven shouldn't be together, it's about how Mike and Will should. Their arc could've shown the real tribulations of struggling with your sexuality when you believe to be one thing and inside you know you’re another.
It would’ve displayed just how troubling young queer love can be, especially in the ‘80’s, a time where queerness was in the hot seat and not widely accepted by the masses. That fact alone could’ve justified why it took years and years for Mike to come to terms with his emotions and his fears of admitting his love for Will.
When all is said and done, the show has come to an end and many fans, including myself, mourn the loss of “Byler” again and again, as another sad TikTok edit to a Conan Gray song comes up on our for you page. But just as some fans choose to believe that Eleven is still alive, I choose to believe that Mike and Will found each other again in the ‘90s and were able to live happily ever after. At least that's what I see in my head.
