All interviews included in this article were completed on the set of Heartstopper Season 2 in Nov. 2022.
The joyously queer first season of Heartstopper warmed hearts with its depiction of students navigating the intricacies of desire and identity. Alice Oseman, creator of the hit show and the graphic novels on which it’s based, was riding high — as if they were surfing the wave on the walls of Truham Grammar. Less than a month after Season 1 dropped in April 2022, Netflix said “hi” to two more seasons, which meant Oseman had to get cracking on writing Season 2 ASAP and tackle the question: What happens after you come out?
“I was really excited about it, but we just didn’t have a lot of time. So it was a very intense summer of writing and getting the show together,” Oseman told Tudum in a classroom on the series’ Slough, England, set. (If you’ve seen the British version of The Office, it’s the same town.)
Self-discovery is a lifelong journey, one the characters of Heartstopper are just embarking on. So Oseman was gratified to find that there were new stories to tell and new characters to develop. Season 1 primarily followed the blossoming romance of shy teen Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and sensitive rugby lad Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). “It’s really nice to see the relationship grow [in Season 2],” Connor said, with Locke praising how “Alice has been able to grow the other stories a lot as well, which is great.”
Volume 3 of Oseman’s comics serves as the foundation for Season 2, which sees the gang take a dreamy school trip to Paris after they complete their A-level exams. “There are just so many iconic moments in the third volume of Heartstopper,” said Connor. “It feels like we’re doing one of these big moments every other day.”
Dive in headfirst as the Heartstopper crew give Tudum an inside look at how they rode the queer comfort wave into Season 2, premiering Aug. 3.
Season 1 ended with Nick coming out as bisexual to his mum (Olivia Colman) and declaring that he and Charlie were officially “boyfriends.” But that was just an introduction to Nick’s emerging identity. “It goes so well with his mum, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to go super well with every single person in his life,” Oseman said.
In Season 2, the gang confronts a familiar experience of anyone who’s part of the LGBTQ+ community. “You don’t just come out once. You come out a variety of different ways, multiple times over your life,” said executive producer Patrick Walters.
Tobie Donovan, whose bookish character Isaac Henderson was adapted from Aled in the comics, was nervous but “super excited” for Isaac to explore his own sexuality this season. His particular storyline “isn’t really on TV at the minute, at all,” he said. “It feels like a lot of weight and pressure, but good weight and pressure. It’s pushing me to work my hardest rather than being terrified of it.”
Previously working at British grocery store Sainsbury’s before booking Heartstopper, Donovan wasn’t the only cast member who spent a lot of time between seasons thinking about the importance of this narrative and how best to honor the characters. Corinna Brown (whose character Tara Jones is a mentor to Nick and Charlie) said, “The challenge for me was to get out of my head and be like, ‘You know Tara. You know this character.’ ”
For Locke, his familiarity with his character was a welcome anchor as he continued Charlie’s voyage of discovery. “We know the characters so well now that lots of the pressure from the first season has sort of eased,” he said.
Tao Xu (William Gao) and Elle Argent (Yasmin Finney) step into the romantic spotlight in a major way after literal doodles of their chemistry sparked at the end of Season 1. “A lot of people came to me and their main thing was, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t they kiss?’ ” Finney said. “Alice is very smart because they left the audience wanting more. This season, we really haven’t let anyone down.”
A romance like Tao and Elle’s, that starts from a foundation of friendship, is simply the story Oseman likes to write. “It’s the two people who just get along really well and like spending time together,” they said. “Having that foundation of friendship makes the moments so much more meaningful.”
Tao’s feelings for Elle were always back of mind for Gao in Season 1, and he knew if there were a Season 2, their love story would have its moment to shine. That also meant examining Tao’s vulnerabilities and learning why he’s so scared of losing people, especially Elle.
“He’s got all of his barriers up in Season 1,” Gao said. “He’s this frantic dog that’s defensive and kind of all over the place. But in Season 2, he speaks about how loss and grief has affected him in his family life and how it’s influenced his actions.”
Elle, in turn, is learning to spread her wings through her passion for art. “Not only is she navigating the world as a trans woman, but she also knows exactly what she wants to do, and her path is set,” Finney said.
Tudum was on set for the filming of one of Volume 3’s most anticipated scenes: the Truth or Dare game during the Paris trip. Oseman promised the filmed scene would be super true to the comics.
The scene “is so accurate to the comics and I wrote that so long ago now. It’s very weird to see it in real life,” Oseman said.
It’s also intentionally designed to look just like the comic strip. “Our director [Euros Lyn] and DP [Simona Susnea] always see if there’s a comic panel that looks like a shot they could do. They’ll always re-create that shot [if they can]. I love that every time I see it,” said Locke.
Like James McEwan (Bradley Riches), whose most memorable lines in the comics are during the game. You may remember James from the Season 1 finale — he’s the student who asks Mr. Ajayi (Fisayo Akinade) if Nick needs to finish the Sports Day rugby match. But he’s gone from extra to key player in Season 2. “When I was doing my one-liner, I obviously didn’t know it was going to escalate into another character in Season 2,” Riches said.
Sahar Zahid (Leila Khan) is another blast from the comic’s past this season. But in the series, she and Imogen Heaney (Rhea Norwood) are former friends who grew apart after a miscommunication before the events of Season 1. “They’re at an insecure age,” said Norwood. “And there’s this definite brand of young girls that struggle to maintain female friendships.”
Friendships ebbing and flowing is all part of surfing the Heartstopper wave. But with Oseman’s comics as our board, we know we’ll always be cruising in safe hands.
Stream Heartstopper Season 2 on Aug. 3.
