Highlights
- Kit Connor and Joe Locke reflect on Heartstopper’s legacy as the franchise wraps with a film
- Both stars served as executive producers on Heartstopper Forever, out now on Netflix
- Finale arrives amid a reported decline in LGBTQIA+ representation across television
Kit Connor and Joe Locke are looking back on the show that made them stars — and the mark it’s leaving behind — as Netflix’s Heartstopper franchise comes to a close.
The pair, who have played Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring since the series premiered in 2022, closed out the story this week with the release of the feature film Heartstopper Forever.
For Connor, the significance of the project isn’t lost on him.
“It’s the biggest thing that will ever happen to any of us,” he said, reflecting on the show’s outsized influence on his career and personal life.
The lasting impact Kit Connor and Locke have had extends well beyond the screen. Heartstopper has been credited with reshaping how queer teen stories get told, drawing some of Netflix’s highest viewership numbers while tackling sexual identity, mental health and bullying head-on.
Both actors stepped into executive producer roles for the finale film, a move Connor said gave the cast a stronger voice in how their characters’ final chapter would be told.
At the London premiere earlier this week, Connor opened up about portraying a more vulnerable side of Nick Nelson in the film, a departure from the character’s typically sunny disposition.
“It’s very moving to be in the room with everyone,” he told reporters at the Q&A following the screening.
Locke, who has since branched out into Marvel’s Agatha All Along and made his Broadway and West End debuts, echoed that sense of gratitude while also pushing for change within the industry.
“I think this industry is still run in a very closed doors way,” he said, referencing Heartstopper’s unconventional casting process, which pulled largely unknown actors from an open call that drew more than 10,000 applicants.
The finale film also pushes the Nick and Charlie relationship into new territory, including more mature intimacy scenes as the couple navigates a long-distance relationship while Nick heads off to university.
Locke described the scenes as a natural progression for the characters, saying simply that “they feel beautiful”.
Co-star William Gao, who plays Tao Xu, said the cast has grown alongside their characters over the show’s four-year run, noting “we bring the fans through into adulthood”.
The franchise’s conclusion arrives at a fraught moment for queer representation on screen. GLAAD’s most recent Where We Are on TV report found that 41 percent of the previous season’s nearly 500 identified LGBTQIA+ characters had disappeared from television due to cancellations or finales.
Heartstopper Forever began streaming on Netflix on July 17, closing out a story based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel series that industry watchers say helped redefine YA television for a generation of viewers.
