In series three, Heartstopper is growing up with its characters. Nick and Charlie are starting to transition from a relationship that began at 15, to one where they support each other through life changes, mental health struggles, and those big university decisions.

Heartstopper began as a spin-off to Alice Oseman’s debut graphic novel Solitaire. After a few webcomics published on Tumblr in 2015, Oseman decided her characters Nick and Charlie deserved a full dedicated book series. Heartstopper is now a five-part series, with a sixth novel currently in production.

Heartstopper returns to Netflix on Thursday 3 October, and if you don’t quite have time to binge the first two series again, and fancy a refresher, here’s your guide…

Charlie Spring (Joe Locke)

Charlie Spring begins the series as one of the first openly gay students in his boys’ school. As a result, he experiences regular bullying and is in a secret situationship with fellow student Ben Hope, who is riddled with internalised homophobia. When Charlie and Ben have a messy ending, Charlie’s attention quickly turns to the popular older boy sitting next to him in form, Nick Nelson.

Across series one, Nick is in Charlie’s corner standing up for him against his homophobic group of friends. Eventually, the two kiss at a party and begin to secretly date.

Charlie is clearly still affected by the bullying and struggles to see why Nick would want a relationship with him. Through series two, as their relationship gets more serious, Charlie allows Nick to see how years of discrimination impacted his mental health.

Nick Nelson (Kit Connor)

Kit Connor plays Nick Nelson, a popular rugby player in the year above Charlie. After sitting next to Charlie in form group, Nick slowly begins to discover his sexuality – and that his set of friends might not be the most supportive.

Through Nick, we get to see some classic LGBTQIA+ coming-of-age moments: the friendship that blurs the lines, googling ‘Am I Gay? quiz,’ and fancying both Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Through the course of series two, and with support from his boyfriend, Nick manages to be publicly, and proudly, bisexual.

Tao Xu (William Gao)

Although Tao seems like a great best friend to both Charlie and Elle Argent, he also has potential attachment issues, and struggles if he senses his friends drifting from him. He’s also prone to putting his foot in it, accidentally outing Charlie by speaking too loudly in the school corridors.

Tao and Elle both know they have feelings for each other, but not wanting to ruin their (very lovely) friendship, decide to squish those feelings deep down.

Elle Argent (Yasmin Finney)

Elle Argent is a transgender character played by Doctor Who’s Yasmin Finney. Elle used to be part of Charlie and Tao’s friendship group at Truham Grammar School but, after transitioning, she moved to Higgs Girls School. Although they’re now in separate schools, the three are still besties, and meet for movie nights and milkshakes.

In series two the Truham and Higgs students take a school trip to Paris, and it is in the city of love that Elle and Tao finally admit their feelings, with a kiss.

Tara Jones (Corinna Brown)

Tara and Darcy are the self-described ‘school lesbians’ who befriend Elle when she moves schools. The two long-term friends began a relationship after kissing whilst locked in a music practice room.

In the first series, Tara copes with coming out of the closet in a very 21^st century way (through Instagram) and begins dealing with the real-life consequences of being her true self.

Darcy Olsson (Kizzy Edgell)

Unlike Tara, Darcy has been out of the closet for a while, but her main tension lies at home with her homophobic mother.

Series two introduces a storyline not present in the graphic novels. Darcy struggles to say the L word back to Tara, and becomes cagey about her home life. This causes tension for the two and they begin to drift. During the Paris trip, the tension reaches its peak, with Darcy finally opening up to Tara.

Isaac Henderson (Tobie Donovan)

Isaac has a reading list to rival Rory Gilmore, always having a different book by his side when he appears on screen. Through the first series he got into Dune, Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum, Gareth Thomas’ autobiography, and even Radio Silence by Alice Oseman – the graphic novel where inspiration for his character originated.

When James McEwan kisses Isaac, it is the catalyst for Isaac’s realisation that he is asexual. Although this hasn’t been verbally confirmed yet, the second series was full of hints.

Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft)

Ben Hope is a closeted bully, who takes a ‘if I can’t have him, no one can’ approach to Charlie in series one. He does this by telling him “no one would ever date someone as pathetic as you” in random intervals. He times it very well, almost having a sixth sense for when Charlie is feeling confident in himself, so he can tear him down.

Ben won’t be returning for series three, with Oseman and Croft explaining to Netflix that they both felt it right his character doesn’t have a redemption arc.

Harry Greene (Cormac Hyde-Corrin)

Harry picks on Charlie and Tao right from the outset of Heartstopper. Although Harry and Nick are technically friends, Nick begins to realise that Harry is a bully, culminating in a physical fight between the two after Harry calls Charlie another homophobic slur. Harry does end up apologising for this behaviour in series two, which Charlie, thankfully, rejects.

Imogen Heaney (Rhea Norwood)

Imogen really fancies Nick at the beginning of the series, going as far to tell people that they’re ‘basically dating’ before Nick is even aware she likes him.

Poor Imogen really thinks her and Nick will end up together in series one. They hang out every morning before class, AND they both like dogs. It should have been a match made in heaven.

She gives love another chance in series two, but ends up choosing Ben Hope... who she promptly breaks up with once she realises he can't stop talking about Charlie. 

Tori Spring (Jenny Walser)

Charlie’s older sister was the protagonist of Oseman’s debut novel, Solitaire, which sees her reluctantly fall in love with Michael Holden as they investigate a ‘prankster group’ who are causing chaos in their town. She’s meant to be a bit of a ‘black cat’ cool girl who keeps herself to herself; however, the care she has for her younger brother shows that she’s softer under the surface.

Michael Holden (Darragh Hand)

Michael hasn’t yet appeared in the Heartstopper TV series, but he was a central character in Solitaire, where he acted as the golden retriever to Tori’s black cat.

Newcomer Darragh Hand has been cast as Michael in series three. Fans of the series who have not read the novels have a guitar playing, introspective, enigmatic new character to look forward to, who also speed skates to a Winter Olympic level.

Jane Spring & Julio Spring (Georgina Rich & Joseph Balderrama)

Jane and Julio are Charlie and Tori’s parents, and although they don’t appear much in the series, Oseman delved into their backstory on Tumblr back in 2018. Through a Q&A with fans, Oseman revealed that they met in Spain in the 1980s, whilst Jane was solo inter-railing. Julio was attracted to Jane’s “just… REALLY weird” demeanour, and she was won over by his attempts to make her smile.

In the series, they don’t pop up a lot but are very protective of Charlie – especially due to his mental health and past bullying.

Sarah Nelson (Olivia Colman)

Olivia Colman won the title of TV mum of the year after the beautiful viral scene of Nick coming out of the closet, and his mum’s lovely response. Unfortunately, Colman can’t return to series three due to scheduling conflicts, although she said she’d like to return for series four.

David Nelson (Jack Barton)

It’s not all peaches and cream: Nick has a homophobic older brother. David makes it known that he resents having a brother with a boyfriend, putting a barrier in the way of Nick’s self-acceptance.

Stéphane Nelson (Thibault de Montalembert)

Nick’s mum and dad have been separated for a long time, with Stéphane spending most of his time living in France. He is a very uninvolved father, which helps Nick when coming out to him, as he decides he no longer cares what he, or his brother, thinks.

Aunt Diane (Hayley Atwell)

In the comic books, Nick stays with his maternal aunt when on holiday in Majorca. She suggests he should bring Charlie next time.

As a new character for the third series, played by Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter), it appears she might take a different tac, with Oseman saying she may have some “tough advice to impart about his relationship.”

Mr Farouk & Mr Ajayi (Nima Taleghani & Fisayo Akinade)

Mr Ajayi has always been a massive support to Charlie, letting him eat lunch in his classroom whenever school is getting a bit much. Mr Farouk is new for series two, and the bad cop to his good. When Higgs and Truham decide to send the two schools on a trip to Paris, it’s not just the students who are falling victim to the city of love.

After Mr Farouk catches Charlie and Nick kissing in the corridor, the two teachers open up about their sexualities and share a kiss of their own.

James McEwan (Bradley Riches)

Outside Truham boys’ school, James is best known for his spell in the Big Brother house – or maybe that was the actor who plays him, Bradley Riches.

In the graphic novel James appears closeted, potentially having a bit of a crush on Charlie. Whereas in the TV adaption, he is out and proud, and fancies Isaac.

Christian McBride, Sai Verma & Otis Smith (Evan Ovenell, Ashwin Vishwanath & Araloyin Oshunremi)

Initially part of Nick’s group of friends, they drift apart after they become Harry’s lackeys. As the saying goes, ‘laugh along with the bully and you are the bully’ – and this essentially encapsulates their character arcs.

Headmaster Barnes (Stephen Fry)

Although the headteacher is never seen, the disembodied voice of Stephen Fry echoes through the school intercom.

Naomi Russell & Felix Britten (Bel Priestley & Ash Self)

Ash Self and TikToker Bel Priestley play students Felix and Naomi, and Elle meets the pair when she looks around a specialist art school. Although Elle loves her friends, Naomi and Felix allow her to have a trans community around her, and Naomi and Elle bond over being known as ‘the trans girls’ in their current schools.

Geoff (Eddie Marsan)

At the end of series two, Charlie becomes more honest about the gravity of his mental health issues, which leads Charlie’s therapist to enter in series three, portrayed by Eddie Marsan (Back to Black).

Jack Maddox (Jonathan Bailey)

Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey enters the scene in series three, playing Charlie’s celebrity crush Jack Maddox. In typical Charlie form, his celeb crush is a keyboard player turned classicist who now presents history programmes. Swoon.

Heartstopper series three will air on Netflix on 3 October 2024.