The place do you go when you’ve reached fortunately ever after? That was the problem for Heartstopper creator and government producer Alice Oseman heading into season two of her syrupy candy smash-hit Netflix sequence about younger queer love. Season one in all Hearstopper, which took the world by storm when it premiered in April of 2022, adopted out homosexual teen Charlie (Joe Locke) as he falls head over heels for standard, seemingly straight rugby participant Nick (Package Connor). By the tip of the primary season, Nick has found his bisexuality, come out to his mom (Olivia Colman), and is totally smitten with Charlie. Now that the 2 boys had been head over heels in like-like, the place was Heartstopper to go?
“In season two, we get to really see them being in an actual relationship,” says Oseman, Zooming in from Kent, England. “Being glad and excited to be collectively, and seeing them type of simply get to know one another a bit higher and perceive one another extra.”
Oseman, who makes use of she/they pronouns, pulled from her personal sequence of graphic novels to proceed Charlie and Nick’s journey. “Their story could be very, similar to quantity three of the comics,” she says. Whereas Nick and Charlie are nonetheless decidedly within the honeymoon section of their teenage dream of a romance, season two of Heartstopper additionally offers with thornier topics, as Nick offers with the awkwardness of popping out and Charlie grapples with the aftershocks of years of bullying. “Balancing the lightness with the darkness is type of the core aspect of writing Heartstopper,” Oseman says.
Doing this isn’t all the time simple, particularly when your present turned a worldwide phenomenon for followers who like to see their favourite characters glad. “Displaying these stunning, lovely, healthful, pretty moments that Heartstopper is thought for whereas additionally exploring actual points that actual individuals are coping with could be actually laborious,” she says.
Oseman managed that partially by increasing the purview of the sequence, spending extra time this season with Nick and Charlie’s queer group of besties—Tara (Corinna Brown), Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), Tao (William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney), and Isaac (Tobie Donovan). “We’ve got a lot extra happening for the supporting solid,” Oseman says, excitedly. And it’s true: Cracks start to indicate in girlfriends Tara and Darcy’s relationship; Tao and his trans BFF Elle take their friendship to the following degree. Even book-loving Isaac will get area to interrogate his personal sexuality.
Inside the good friend group, virtually each letter of the LGBTQ+ spectrum is represented in a roundabout way. Oseman, who has beforehand stated that she identifies as asexual and aromantic, says that illustration was “positively intentional” as she “needed to indicate an actual various vary of experiences.”
“Though the present could be very centered on Nick and Charlie, I actually needed us to really feel that it has this large queer friendship group at its coronary heart,” she continues. “It’s simply type of a part of what Heartstopper is: exhibiting all these individuals with totally different experiences, but additionally reassuring you that regardless of who you’re, yow will discover pleasure and love and friendship and happiness and hope, and all that great things.”
In fact, the teenage LGBTQ+ expertise is just not solely great things. Following the huge success of season one, 18-year-old Package Connor tweeted that he felt he was “pressured” to come back out as bisexual after rabid Heartstopper followers {accused} him of queerbaiting. On the time, Oseman voiced her assist for Connor, replying to his tweet, “You owe nothing to anybody. I’m so pleased with you my good friend.” (All the Twitter thread has since been deleted.) When requested concerning the scenario over Zoom, Oseman voices her assist for her total solid, with out singling out Connor particularly. “I really feel so pleased with all of them, as a result of I really feel so proud to have a solid who cares a lot concerning the story and are placing themselves on the market, being superb representatives of the queer group and provoking individuals,” she says. “They’re so inspiring for therefore many younger individuals now. I simply really feel very pleased with all of them and protecting of all of them, and I need to assist no matter they’re doing.”
Actual-world drama apart, this season, Nick, Charlie, and their group of besties get to expertise queer romance in probably the most romantic place of all: Paris, France. Taking pictures on location within the Metropolis of Love “was an enormous problem,” says Oseman. “It was actually troublesome. Filming in an enormous metropolis in very public locations round some highly regarded cultural landmarks—that is type of one of many largest challenges you would face for making a TV present.”
Heartstopper shot for 9 days in Paris to seize its class-trip episodes, which see the good friend group go to iconic Paris landmarks together with the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. “It was very intense,” Oseman recollects. “There have been loads of very early mornings. We had two of these mornings the place we had been up the Eiffel Tower at 7 a.m. because the solar was rising earlier than all of the vacationers arrived, and we had a small shoot within the Louvre as effectively.”
The early mornings had been all value it. “It was actually, actually magical,” Oseman stated. “Though everybody was type of exhausted and stressed, I feel everybody actually treasured that have, for positive.”
