Heartstopper Season 3 premiered on Netflix less than two weeks ago and has already inspired oodles of fan art, sparked countless cry sessions, and become Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a perfect 100% critics score. Heartstopper tells the enchanting story of gay British teen Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) who finds himself crushing hard on his seemingly-straight rugby-playing seatmate Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). The two embark on a sweet friendship that soon turns romantic as Nick discovers his bisexuality with the help of a super-supportive mother and online quizzes.
Heartstopper is such a wild, intoxicating success because it’s a story that wears its heart on its sleeve. Created by Alice Oseman, and inspired by her graphic novel series of the same name, Heartstopper balances hard-hitting issues affecting today’s youth with an indefatigable sense of optimism that with love, everything will be alright in the end.
**Spoilers for Heartstopper Season 3, now streaming on Netflix**
Heartstopper Season 3 broke new ground for the series by ushering in a series of major milestones for its teen characters. Over the course of the new season, Nick and Charlie declare their love for each other, Nick encourages Charlie to seek treatment for his eating disorder, and the two teen boys eventually lose their virginity to one another. However, in true Heartstopper spirit, these sex scenes are treated with an emotional maturity and tender sweetness that feels simultaneously real and aspirational.
Elsewhere, other major Heartstopper characters go through equally massive evolutions. Nick and Charlie’s friends Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao) also finally consummate their romance. Imogen (Rhea Norton), who chased after Nick all the way back in Season 1, comes out as queer, neatly mirroring Nick’s own journey. Most notably, though, Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) reveals they are non-binary in a storyline designed to mirror transgender actor Edgell’s own offscreen coming out journey.
The fact that Heartstopper continues to maintain its trademark tenderness while also evolving in real time with its maturing cast is a testament to the work that creator Alice Oseman and showrunner Patrick Walters have done. In adapting Oseman’s original graphic novel, they’ve managed to stay true to the book’s most iconic scenes while also broadening the canvas of the Heartstopper universe.
Alice Oseman and Patrick Walters stopped by Decider HQ last week on the morning after they’d received their proverbial flowers at the Time100 Next Party. They revealed not only what it’s like to see fellow honoree Sabrina Carpenter live, but also how easily Heartstopper‘s young stars took to their intimate Season 3 scenes, how the cast has influenced the final volume of the graphic novel, and which major star they’d like to write a potential Season 4 cameo for…
DECIDER: I noticed via your Instagram that you were at a very fancy party last night. You were at the Time100 Next Party. Congratulations on being on that list. What was the party like, and how good is Sabrina Carpenter live?
ALICE OSEMAN: Yeah, it was kind of crazy. I feel like big events like that are always quite scary. I was very scared to be among people whom I consider real celebrities. And Sabrina Carpenter was amazing. Obsessed.
PATRICK WALTERS: Amazing. “Espresso” live? Very good.
DECIDER: Speaking of which, I was reading the dedication of why you’re on the list, and how your fans, when they read these books, feel “loved.” Obviously, the new season of the series just came out, but what’s been the most meaningful, immediate fan reaction that you’ve seen to the third season?
ALICE OSEMAN: I think the reaction to the mental health story in Season 3 has been really amazing. Season 3 mainly focuses on Charlie’s experience of having an eating disorder and his whole journey from getting to a really dark place and then finding his way out of it. People seem to be really enjoying seeing that journey and finding it relatable. It’s just going down really well, and I’m very pleased.
DECIDER: Have you seen anything that made you excited in terms of the reaction to this season as well?
PATRICK WALTERS: I think we knew we were going to be doing something a bit different with Season 3. With each season, we’ve tried to not repeat the previous season. So I think seeing the response to Episode 4, for example, which is an episode where Alice broke the stylistic form of Heartstopper. We have one half of the episode from Nick’s point of view, and the other half from Charlie’s point of view and voiceover, which we’ve never used before. It kind of establishes that we’re telling the story in a different way. I’ve seen the fan reaction to that has been amazing because people are really enjoying it.
DECIDER:I have to say one thing about this season that was a little bit different for me is that we have sex scenes. Heartstopper has a reputation for being very gentle and very sweet. Was there a way that you wanted to approach the intimacy with the characters that kept that theme going? Or were you willing to try to make it a little bit more racy that maybe fans are expecting?
ALICE OSEMAN: It feels like a really natural evolution. It’s time for Nick and Charlie and the other characters as well. My approach was to look at it from a very emotional place, to really think about what the anxieties and fears are surrounding sex. Like, “Am I ready, or is my partner ready? What if it’s really awkward and embarrassing?” And those are just very relatable teenage experiences, I think. That feels very Heartstopper, I guess.
DECIDER: How did the actors respond to going into intimacy coordination and sex scenes? Did they have a voice in what they would be doing on screen? Talk me through how you guys made that transition.
PATRICK WALTERS: We worked with an amazing intimacy coordinator, a guy called David Thackeray. He’s been on the show since Season 1. He’s been across all of the scenes from day one where they’d be holding hands, for example, and just making sure that the workplace, the set, is a really professional environment, and Kit and Joe and the actors who are doing those sorts of scenes feel safe. By the time we got to Season 3, it was like, “Yeah, we got this. This is fine.” They were used to [being] very chill, very comfortable around each other because they’ve crafted these performances, this on-screen chemistry together as colleagues and now friends. It didn’t seem to phase them too much actually, did it?
ALICE OSEMAN: No.
PATRICK WALTERS: They were very happy to tell that story.
DECIDER: And Elle and Tao obviously also consummate their relationship. We get a little cheeky pan to fireworks. Is that in the graphic novels, or is that something that you guys conceived of for the show?
ALICE OSEMAN: Fully for the show. Elle and Tao don’t have a huge story in the comics. There just isn’t room for that. So one of the really fun things about the show is getting to expand on the stories of the supporting characters, and particularly Elle and Tao. You really get to see all the big moments of their romance as well as Nick and Charlie’s.
DECIDER: I know you’ve talked about Imogen, a character who also got more fully fleshed-out story this season. Has anything through your experience with the cast inspired you to want to do a spinoff about a particular character or do a little bit more in the graphic novels?
ALICE OSEMAN: Yeah, definitely. I feel so inspired by all the cast. I encourage them to unpack the characters in their own ways and really take ownership over their interpretations of the characters. And in turn, that gives me ideas and makes me think about characters in ways that I haven’t done before. So, for example, Kizzy, who portrays Darcy in Season 3, Darcy goes on a whole nonbinary journey, which is very inspired by his own experience. And that’s something that I now love to put into the books as well, and I’m hoping to put that in Volume 6. So they’re kind of all intermingling.
DECIDER: Speaking of Volume 6, I know you just are rolling it out. Are you nervous about the fan reaction? Have you finished the whole volume? Give me an update on where you’re at with it.
ALICE OSEMAN: It’s very nerve wracking. It’s at the point where there are so many readers of Heartstopper, it’s just impossible to please everyone. There’s always going to be some people who don’t like what I do with the story, which I just have to accept at this point. But I’m really excited about where the story’s going. I’ve written it all. I haven’t drawn it all. I’ve still got a lot of the drawing to do, but I know exactly what’s going to happen in the story. I know how it’s going to end, and I think most people are going to like it.
DECIDER: Where do you see the future of Heartstopper, the show? Do you think there should be a fourth season? Could it go further? How do you see it dovetailing with what you have planned for Volume 6?
PATRICK WALTERS: We’re really hopeful. We’ve always sort of stayed incredibly close to the graphic novels that you’ve written and drawn. When we approached the TV series, the idea was to tell that story as faithfully as possible. We’re very excited and hopeful that we get to finish it out.
DECIDER: The cast of this show is really incredible. They remind me of other shows, whether it be Skins or even Gossip Girl. You have this young cast of actors who all go on to great things. How has it been watching Joe in Agatha All Along right now? Or seeing Kit and Joe both on Broadway? What’s it like watching your little kids grow up before your eyes?
ALICE OSEMAN: That’s literally exactly what it’s like. We always refer to ourselves as the parents of Heartstopper, and they’re our children. So we have literally watched them all grow up. It’s so exciting to see them do all kinds of different things because we know their performances so well as the characters of Heartstopper. But getting to see them do completely different things, it’s just really fun.
PATRICK WALTERS: I never knew Joe could sing so well. When I went to see Sweeney Todd, Alice and I were like, jaws were on the floor, because he’s just so talented. We knew he was talented as an actor, and he can do so much more than that.
DECIDER: Do you have plans to see Romeo and Juliet while you’re in town?
ALICE OSEMAN: We do, yes.
PATRICK WALTERS: We’re excited.
DECIDER: I had to ask because I literally saw Kit on the street last week, and I had to do a double take because he looks so grown up right now. Is it weird watching them evolve from the sweet boys from Season 1? Now, they’re young men!
PATRICK WALTERS: They’re still the sweet boys! I feel like watching them mature into these amazing actors and conquering the world outside of Heartstopper is incredibly gratifying for us.
DECIDER: I want to ask you about some of the cameos this season. I am a big Jonathan Bailey fan. What was it like getting him to guest star as a crush-worthy Classics professor?
ALICE OSEMAN: It’s kind of a long story. He wanted to be in the show in Season 2, and we were like, “My God, he wants to be in the show, like, absolutely.” But then in Season 2, there just wasn’t any role for him. You can’t have Jonathan Bailey just randomly appear and give one line and then disappear. It’d be very weird. So we had to really think carefully in Season 3. Like, “What could he be in the show?” I had this little side comic that I’d done just online. It’s not in the books. In that little comic, there’s a character who is Charlie’s celebrity crush. He’s a sort of classics professor. And we saw that. We thought, “Actually, that’s literally Jonathan Bailey.”
PATRICK WALTERS: That’s perfect.
DECIDER: Is there anyone else who has approached you wanting to be in the show that you’re trying to find a way to squeeze in?
PATRICK WALTERS: I mean, Andrew Scott is amazing and we’re big fans of him, so that’s one we would hope could maybe happen at some point.
ALICE OSEMAN: That would be amazing.
DECIDER: Do you have a role in mind for him?
ALICE OSEMAN: Not really.
PATRICK WALTERS: We can think about it.
ALICE OSEMAN: We’ll figure something out.
DECIDER: I also wanted to talk about the music on the show. Music is such an important part of anyone’s adolescence. The soundtrack is so incredible. Every single banger I can think of is on the Heartstopper soundtrack. What goes into the music? How much of the budget goes into the music?
ALICE OSEMAN: We’re very involved in the music. From the very start, we — me and Patrick — we make a playlist when I’m writing, putting all kinds of things in there that remind us of Heartstopper. Then in the editing process, the editors use that playlist to choose songs from or find similar things.
PATRICK WALTERS: It’s always a process. Looking back on the three seasons, there’s been some real moments where you’re like, “Are we going to get Taylor Swift in Heartstopper?” When that happened in Season 2, I’m a big Swiftie, so that was incredibly, personally satisfying. It’s definitely evolved and we now have a bigger budget to play with. We’ve got Billie Eillish this season, for example. It’s nice to see those more established acts alongside the Heartstopper originals.
DECIDER: This might be a very silly question, but I love the Trixie and Katya breakdowns of the series. Do you know if there’s one in development for the third season?
ALICE OSEMAN: I actually have no clue.
PATRICK WALTERS: I have no clue, but I really hope that there is.
ALICE OSEMAN: I feel like they will like some of the developments in Season 3, so hopefully.
DECIDER: What’s next for you guys after Heartstopper eventually comes to its conclusion on the page and on the screen? Do you see potential spin offs? Are there other novels of yours that you want to work with her to adapt?
ALICE OSEMAN: I literally have no idea at the moment. I’m looking forward to having a little bit of a break because I’ve been working on Heartstopper for a really long time. I’m just excited that I can kind of do anything at that point. I could go back to writing my novels, or I could do more in TV, which I’d love to continue working with. That’s because I love Netflix. I don’t know at the moment, but there’s so many different options. It’s going to be really exciting.
DECIDER: Is there a particular favorite scene in the third season that you love the way it came to life?
ALICE OSEMAN: I mean, so many. I immediately think of the whole Halloween sequence, partly because I love Halloween, but it’s directed in such a cool way. It’s such a stressful, chaotic moment for Nick as a character. It looks stunning. That’s one of my favorites, I think.
PATRICK WALTERS: I love the end of Episode 1. When the boys say, “I love you,” finally, and Nick’s in the shower, and then he’s running out. That was such an iconic moment from the comics. I was always conscious. I was like, “We’ve got to make that as magical as it is on the page onscreen.” I think Kit and Joe did a fantastic job, and our director, Andy, made it look so beautiful.
This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.