Heartstopper Season 3 Returns This Fall With More Mature Storylines

Nick and Charlie shippers rejoice: Heartstopper Season 3 is right around the corner. After much speculation among fans, Netflix has just announced that the popular YA series will return this October. Based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper centers on the unexpected, but sweet romance between high schoolers Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). Here’s the first-look teaser:

Per the press release, Season 3 will see Nick and Charlie facing more mature storylines as their relationship deepens and they face both “joys and challenges” in the school year. As the boys and their friend group — which includes Tao (William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney), Tara (Corrina Brown), Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), Isaac (Tobie Donovan), and Imogen (Rhea Norwood) — tackle mental health, sex, and university plans, they must “learn to lean on those they love when life doesn’t go to plan.”

Season 2 hinted at Charlie’s mental health struggle, and the finale ended with Nick just starting to understand what his boyfriend has been dealing with. However, the upcoming season is expected to explore these issues in depth. In the books, Charlie is diagnosed with anorexia and obsessive compulsive disorder, and he spends some time at an in-patient treatment center. “The tension is high,” Connor said of the upcoming season. “It’s like sexual tension, love, we’re all there.”

“While Heartstopper will always celebrate the joyful and point towards hope, I’m really excited that we are allowing the tone of the show to mature alongside our beloved characters growing up,” Oseman told Netflix’s Tudum. “The Heartstopper teens are getting older, learning more about themselves and each other, and experiencing new desires, new fears, and new joys as they approach adulthood.”

The new teaser trailer, which shows the cast at a fairground, reveals what the third season has in store for other characters as well, like Charlie’s sister Tori (Jenny Walser). According to Walser, her character will open up more about how her brother’s mental health has affected her. She also makes a new friend, Michael Holden (Darragh Hand), whom Oseman welcomed to the Heartstopper family with an Instagram announcement in November. Michael is featured in both the graphic novels and Oseman’s standalone 2014 novel Solitaire.

Locke, who’s currently on tour for his Broadway debut in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, has also teased the upcoming season as more mature. “Every season of our show, we grow up with the characters more and this season is definitely a bit raunchier,” he recently told The Today Show. “It’s still Heartstopper. But it’s also that we deal with some darker issues.”

The Heartstopper announcement comes as part of Netflix U.K. #NextOnNetflix lineup, with the streamer revealing news about its biggest 2024 titles like Bridgerton Season 3, 3 Body Problem, and Love Is Blind UK.

Heartstopper returns to Netflix this October with its Season 3 premiere episode, titled “Love.”

Kelly Martinez is a TV Reporter based in Los Angeles. Her previous work can be found at BuzzFeed and People Magazine, among other outlets. She enjoys reading, spending time with her cat, and explaining the plot of Riverdale to people.