Noah Schnapp had everyone fooled when he claimed he was in a relationship after going public with his new 'boyfriend' on social media.
The Stranger Things star, 21, debuted his romance on Instagram on Wednesday, sharing a sweet photo of himself and his mystery beau standing on a rooftop.
The photo was taken from behind and showed the 'couple' with their arms around each other, gazing at the cityscape.
However, 14 hours later, Noah let everyone know that it had all been an April Fools prank.
"One month of us," he wrote over the romantic photo, followed by a red heart emoji. He followed that on Thursday with another post on his Story that simply read, "April Fools," followed by a kissing face emoji.
His prank comes over three years after he announced that he is gay in January 2023.
Noah took to TikTok to share a clip with fans that saw him lying on a bed as he lip-synced to an audio clip, quipping that he is "more similar to [character] Will than I thought."
© Instagram"When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know'," he wrote over the video before captioning the entire post: "I guess I'm more similar to Will than I thought."
Noah played Will Byers in the hit Netflix series. Will's sexuality had always been questioned by viewers since season one, but in July 2022, Noah confirmed Will was gay and in love with his best friend, played by Finn Wolfhard.
"Obviously, it was hinted at in season one: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?" Noah told Variety at the time.
© TikTok"Now that he's gotten older, [the writers] made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it's 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc."
Noah's character came out as gay in the fifth and final season, which dropped late last year, and said that the moment was "perfect" and "no part of that scene felt forced or produced."
© Netflix"Part of that was how much I spent preparing, and part of that was my cast and how gracious they were," he told The Hollywood Reporter.
"But watching it back onscreen and getting to see everyone's reactions was really sweet and emotional for me," he added.
© NetflixSharing an insight into how he prepared for the five-minute scene, Noah explained: "I reread a lot of coming-out texts that I had sent when I was going through it myself, and scrolled in my camera roll, looking through pictures at that time of my life when I was coming to terms with that.
"But trying to stay in it was hard, and it was the middle of the night too, so it was exhausting."
