Will Byers is one of the original Hawkins kids at the heart of Stranger Things, a quiet, creative Dungeons & Dragons player whose disappearance reveals the existence of the Upside Down and changes his friends forever.

When Will vanishes on November 6, 1983, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Joyce, Hopper, and eventually Eleven are pulled into a mystery much larger than a missing-person search.

Will survives the Upside Down and returns home, but escaping it does not mean leaving it behind.

His connection to that world continues through visions, possession by the Mind Flayer, and an unsettling ability to sense when its influence is near. Yet Will is more than the supernatural things that happen to him.

He draws.

He plays D&D.

He cares deeply about his friends and family.

He struggles with growing up while the people around him seem to move forward faster than he does, and his sensitivity often lets him recognize emotional truths that louder personalities miss.

Across the group’s battles, Will develops from the kid everyone is trying to save into someone increasingly capable of confronting the darkness himself.

Hawkins found the Upside Down because Will disappeared.

Will spends years proving he is more than the place that took him.