Heartstopper stars Kit Connor and Joe Locke speculate on future of Nick and Charlie

Heartstopper actors Joe Locke and Kit Connor are keen to explore more areas – including themes of mental health – as Charlie and Nick’s relationship develops. 

Since its release on Netflix, Heartstopper has quickly become the most talked about show on social media as viewers around the globe have gushed about the amazing queer coming-of-age drama. The series follows the blossoming relationship between openly gay teen Charlie (Locke) and rugby star Nick (Connor) as they navigate romance, school life and their different home lives. 

Needless to say, fans have binge watched the whole first season and are ravenous for a second season. The stars of the hit LGBT+ show have said they would be up for returning for another season, and they have an idea of what they would like to cover in the future. 

Locke told NME that it was easy to imagine the show continuing on as “there are already other graphic novels” in the series – so plenty of source material. He said he’d be interested in exploring Charlie’s journey with mental health and battling an eating disorder. 

“And in them Charlie deals with an eating disorder and his mental health, which I think would be quite interesting to look at,” Locke said. “There are some moments in season one in which Charlie is starting to go on that journey.”

Locke added that Heartstopper writer, Alice Oseman, is “really clever” and “writes these subtle moments” that hint to that “where if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t guess”. But he said fans of the novels would “sort of see Charlie starting down that path”.

Connor added that he would like to explore Nick’s relationships with his family, especially as he has an homophobic older brother.

“For Nick, I think there’s a lot more exploration to be done in terms of his family,” Connor said. “It’s known to fans of the comics that he has an older brother who’s homophobic.”

He continued: “I think that would be a really interesting route to go down, but I think there’s loads of material to go and explore.”

Oseman previously teased about what could come next for Heartstopper if Netflix chose to renew the show. 

She told Digital Spy that future seasons of the show would be exploring themes of mental health as that’s “something that’s really important in the books” as the characters grow. 

“The challenge of writing Heartstopper is exploring those darker issues while keeping the tone so optimistic and hopeful,” Oseman said. “That has been, like, the struggle of writing it for me the whole way through.”

Oseman said they’ve been able to be “very candid about mental health” in the graphic novel series, and they were able to explore such issues in a realistic way without being “intensely triggering or really dark and horrible to reach or watch”.

She said that is “very much my goal for the show” as well. 

Heartstopper is currently streaming on Netflix.