Heartstopper (TV series)

Heartstopper

Genre

Coming-of-age
Romantic comedy
Teen drama

Created by

Alice Oseman

Writer by

Alice Oseman

Directed by

Euros Lyn (seasons 1–2)
Andy Newbery (season 3)

Starring

Joe Locke
Kit Connor
Kizzy Edgell
Yasmin Finney
William Gao
Tobie Donovan
Corinna Brown
Sebastian Croft
Cormac Hyde-Corrin
Rhea Norwood
Jenny Walser
Fisayo Akinade
Chetna Pandya
Olivia Colman
Leila Khan
Jack Barton
Bradley Riches
Nima Taleghani

No. of seasons

1 • 2 • 3 (in development)

No. of episodes

16

Production

Executive producer(s)

Patrick Walters
Alice Oseman
Euros Lyn
Iain Canning
Emile Sherman
Hakan Kousetta
Jamie Laurenson

Producer(s)

Zorana Piggott

Cinematography

Diana Olifirova
Simona Susnea

Editor(s)

Sofie Alonzi
Andonis Trattos

Running time

26–41 minutes

Production company(s)

See-Saw Films

Original release

Network

Netflix

Release

April 22, 2022 – present

Heartstopper^[1] is a Netflix show based on the webcomic of the same name. It is written by Alice Oseman and produced by Netflix in combination with See-Saw Films. The first season was released on April 22, 2022, the second on August 3, 2023, and the third is slated to release in October 2024.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Background

It was greenlit for production in February 2020. On January 20, 2021, it was publicly announced that the show was a fact. Casting for Nick and Charlie was announced on April 22, 2021 with Oseman hinting that more of the cast will be introduced soon. On April 26, 2021 much of the remaining cast was announced.

The first promotion photos were posted on Alice's Instagram on the March 1, 2022, it included pictures of Charlie Spring, Nick Nelson, Tao Xu, Elle Argent, Tara Jones, and Darcy Olsson. This post also confirmed that the first season of the show would be eight chapters. Netflix uploaded the official teaser^[5] for the show on March 16, 2022. The teaser showed a picture of those from the photos as well as Tori Spring.

On May 20, 2022, Netflix announced that Heartstopper was renewed for two more seasons.^[6] On September 22, 2022, the second season officially began production.^[7] On October 2, 2023, the third season officially began production.^[8]

Synopsis

Charlie, a high-strung, openly gay overthinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, one day are made to sit together at their all-boys school. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realized. Based on the comic by Alice Oseman.

Plot

Netflix’s Heartstopper series, based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, tells the story of two British teens, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring, at an all-boys grammar school. Charlie, a high-strung, openly gay overthinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, one day are made to sit together in class. Their friendship quickly becomes something more for openly gay Charlie, but he initially does not believe he has a chance with Nick. But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realized. Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty, and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make something larger.

Cast

Kit Connor as Nick Nelson, Charlie's seatmate in his form class and a popular year 11 rugby star.
Jack Barton as David Nelson, Nick's older brother.
Olivia Colman as Sarah Nelson, Nick and David's mother.
Thibault de Montalembert as Stéphane Nelson, Nick and David's father.
Echo as Nellie, Nick's dog.
Joe Locke as Charlie Spring, a quiet year 10 student at Truham Grammar School for Boys. He’s one of the few openly gay boys at school.
Jenny Walser as Tori Spring, Charlie's older sister who cares a lot about him.
Georgina Rich as Jane Spring, Charlie and Tori's mother.
Joseph Balderrama as Julio Spring, Charlie and Tori's father.
William Gao as Tao Xu, one of Charlie’s two best friends at Truham. He deeply resents Truham’s bullies and just wants to watch cinema.
Momo Yeung as Yan Xu, Tao's mother.
Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent, a former Truham student who has recently transferred to Higgs Girls School. Charlie and his friends desperately miss seeing artistic, lovable Elle every day — but are happy she's living her best life.
Corinna Brown as Tara Jones, one of Elle's new friends at Higgs, who previously kissed Nick as a tween. These days, she’s far more interested in Darcy.
Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson, Elle's second new friend at Higgs, who has been living as a proudly out queer girl for years.
Rachael Stirling as Amanda Olsson, Darcy's homophobic and abusive mother.
Bel Priestley as Naomi Russell, Elle's new friend.
Ash Self as Felix Britten, Elle's new friend.
Cormac Hyde-Corrin as Harry Greene, Truham's rich, loudmouthed local bully.
Sebastian Croft as Ben Hope, a popular Truham boy who is hiding a secret relationship with Charlie.
Tobie Donovan as Isaac Henderson, affable and always with his nose in a book, Isaac is Charlie’s other best friend at school.
Rhea Norwood as Imogen Heaney, a popular Higgs girl with quite an interest in Nick.
Leila Khan as Sahar Zahid, a 16-year-old who is in Year 11 at Higgs. She takes no nonsense and is independent. She can also be cynical at times.^[9]
Bradley Riches as James McEwan, a Truham student.
Fisayo Akinade as Mr. Ajayi, Charlie's supportive queer teacher.
Chetna Pandya as Coach Singh, the rugby team coach.
Alan Turkington as Mr. Lange, a Truham teacher.
Nima Taleghani as Mr. Farouk, a Truham teacher.
Alice Oseman as herself (cameo)

Differences from the Comics

Since the first season is a combination of the first two volumes of Heartstopper, certain changes and differences have been made in order for the books to adapt to television:

Certain characters based in the comics have been excluded from the series:
- Aled Last was left out due to Alice Oseman feeling like they couldn't fit Aled's story in naturally, and instead hoped for a possible adaption of Radio Silence.
- Oliver Spring was left out due to Alice Oseman not wanting to go through the lengthy process of finding a child actor, and instead rewrote the Spring family to have two children.
New characters such as Isaac Henderson and Imogen Heaney are not in the comic books.
Mr. Farouk is a prominent figure in Charlie's life at school, though he doesn't appear until Volume 3.
The language compared to the novels has been toned down significantly in the show. Though the characters swears are minor, the worst one is Harry calling Charlie the F-slur, which mirrors the comics.
Though the focus still remains on Nick and Charlie, supporting characters in the novels - Tao Xu, Elle Argent, Tara Jones, and Darcy Olsson - are given individual storylines; Elle's struggle to adapt to being at Higgs, Tao growing jealous of Charlie and Nick, and Tara and Darcy adapting to become an open couple (though this storyline was part of a mini-comic in the second volume of Heartstopper). Harry has become more of a bully, mocking Charlie and Tao openly, and Elle referencing that Harry teased her for being trans.
In the novels, Ben only appears in Volume 1 before only being referenced in conversation and flashbacks. In the television series, he becomes a recurring antagonist, and is friends with Harry.
In the novels, Charlie is hesitant to reveal to Tao his relationship with Nick when he's informed that Tao was the cause of Charlie being outed at school due to talking too loud. He tells Tao the truth in Volume 3, and he and Nick reveal their relationship to their classmates (including Elle) at Tara's birthday gathering. In the television series, while Tao is still the reason Charlie was outed, it's unrelated to why Charlie didn't tell him. Charlie instead hides his relationship from Tao due to the formers apparent dislike of Nick. He tells Elle of his relationship of Nick first, who in turn comes clean to a hurt Tao.
In the novels, Nick's friends, Christian McBride, Sai Verma, and Otis Smith, quickly pick up on his chemistry with Charlie, and apologize to him after realizing Harry is a jerk. The television series pushes them to the side, giving them little to no lines.
Plot points have been added that are not in the comics, including Nick having a double date between Imogen and Charlie, Tori comforting Charlie when he says he feels like a burden, and the finale revolving around Sports Day.