Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) and their friends at Truham Grammar School are back — and, like every other teenager in the world, they’re just trying to figure it all out when Heartstopper returns for Season 2 on Aug. 3. As Nick tells his pal Elle (Yasmin Finney) in the trailer for the new season above, “You don’t always have to understand your feelings completely. You don’t have to always have everything figured out. You can just feel.”

Though their friends are in the loop, Nick isn’t publicly out at school and Charlie wants to make sure Nick’s coming out experience is way less traumatic than his own — “I want you to come out when and how you want to,” he says. But the new boyfriends aren’t the only ones with romantic woes this season. Tao (William Gao) and Elle are working through their own complicated love lives, and so are the rest of their classmates. 

For a treat sweeter than Nick’s bubblegum milkshake, check out the new trailer for Season 2 above. Below, the cast and crew of Heartstopper share a preview of what’s to come — including a jaunt to the City of Lights — with a behind-the-scenes video. Read on to find out everything we know so far about the new season of Alice Oseman’s coming-of-age series.

Is Season 2 of Heartstopper based on a book?

While details surrounding the new season are kept as hush-hush as Fisayo Akinade’s (Mr. Ajayi) art skills, fans can get a taste of what’s to come by reading Alice Oseman’s beloved graphic novel series — especially Volume 3.

“Season 2 is based on Volume 3,” Oseman told Tudum on the set of Heartstopper. “So we had a good foundation. But there’s not enough in the book to take a whole season of TV, so there had to be a lot of creation of new stuff.”

So it’s safe to say that the summer of 2022 “was a very intense summer of writing and getting the show together.”

Connor adds in the video that fans can rest assured that “Alice has got some amazing scripts for us,” and it “feels cool and fresh.” Overall, it’s “just a different vibe to Season 1.”

What happens in Season 2 of Heartstopper? 

Nick and Charlie navigate their new relationship, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) face unforeseen challenges, and Tao and Elle work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.

But at the root of it all, Heartstopper is about “exploring real, serious issues that can be dark, but trying to balance that with that feeling of hope that things can and will get better,” said Oseman. “From a writing perspective, that can be really difficult to achieve without making it too dark or without skimming over the darker elements of the story. But striving for that balance is the point of Heartstopper.”

What are the Heartstopper Season 2 episode titles? 

Brown and Edgell revealed the names for Season 2’s eight episodes during their electrifying appearance at Tudum: A Global Fan Event. Read all of the names below:

Episode 1 — Out

Episode 2 — Family

Episode 3 — Promise

Episode 4 — Challenge

Episode 5 — Heat

Episode 6 — Truth/Dare

Episode 7 — Sorry

Episode 8 — Perfect

Who is in the cast of Heartstopper 

Season 2?

Newly minted boyfriends Charlie and Nick are ready to explore their relationship further in Season 2. “Charlie goes on more of a journey this season. His story’s a bit more mature,” says Locke.

The rest of the Season 1 squad will also be back to brush up against even more Heartstopper moments of queer joy and discovery, including Finney, Gao, Brown, Edgell, Sebastian Croft (Ben), Tobie Donovan (Isaac), Rhea Norwood (Imogen), Cormac Hyde-Corrin (Harry) and Jenny Walser (Tori).

Akinade, Chetna Pandya (Coach Singh), Alan Turkington (Mr. Lange) and Olivia Colman (as Nick’s mum, Sarah) will also return as the adults shepherding these young teens toward who they’re meant to be.

Reflecting on the cast dynamic, executive producer Patrick Walters told Tudum on set that “it’s really gorgeous because they’re such a bonded gang in the comic and in the scripts that [Alice] wrote. And then you have these actors who are also equally bonded and love each other so much. It’s an energy of friendship on set, whenever the actors are there and a whole big gang. It’s really nice.”

But as you can see in the video, a few things have changed for our Heartstopper cast, like Imogen’s hairstyle. The face-framing blonde highlights are no more in Season 2. “That’s in the past, Season 1 Imogen. It’s a new era,” Norwood told Tudum on set.

Finney also teases that Season 2 Elle is “more confident. She surrounds herself with people that elevate her.”

There are plenty of fresh faces that will be joining the Heartstopper cast for Season 2 as well, including Leila Khan as Higgs student Sahar Zahid and Nima Taleghani as Truham teacher Mr. Farouk. Both of them pop up in the behind-the-scenes video above. Bradley Riches (who played a Truham student in Season 1) will also return as James McEwan. We’ll meet more of Nick’s family in Season 2, including Jack Barton as Nick’s older brother, David, and Thibault de Montalembert as Nick’s father, Stephane. Bella Priestley as Naomi and Ash Self as Felix will both play new friends of Elle. You can check out all of the new characters in the first look gallery below. 

Are the cast of Heartstopper Season 2 friends in real life? 

Oh, most definitely. Connor and Locke told Tudum of the “slight terror” the cast were all feeling at not being able to see each other every day once they wrapped filming on Season 2. But knowing that Heartstopper will return for Season 3 made them “feel a bit better, because after Season 1, we had no idea whether or not we’d see certain people ever again,” said Connor. “We just had no idea if this might blow up or it might be nothing. So at least in knowing we’ve got another season as well, we know we’ll all see each other in however many months.”

And that bond extends to executive producer Patrick Walters and Oseman, who lovingly call themselves the “Lurkers” on set. “We’re literally the bats in the corner somewhere watching” the cast work, Walters noted. “It’s really gorgeous because they’re such a bonded gang in the comic and in the scripts that [Alice] wrote. And then you have these actors who are also equally bonded and love each other so much.”

Both Walters and Oseman feel grateful that they’ve “cultivated a family” on Heartstopper, as Oseman said. “We care about them so much and we just want them to succeed and thrive,” she continued. Recognizing that many of the cast had never even done a TV show prior to filming Season 1, Walters agreed that “in a work-professional way, there is a slight parent-child [dynamic] where I really want them to feel safe and protected in a really friendly, fun environment for them to do their best work. [...] I think that filters through onto the screen.”

That environment provides a real safe space when the cast returns to set from the thorny outside world. “On one side, you’ve got this element of anytime you ever need support, you’ve got it,” explained Connor. “But also, in a very nice way, it really normalizes things, because if something’s happening online that we’re all getting very stressed out about, there are several people on set who will literally just take the piss out of it and out of each other.”

Added Locke, “Yeah, always there for each other but always the most mean to each other.” That’s real love right there.

Who’s the creative team behind Heartstopper Season 2? 

In addition to creating the bestselling graphic novels, Oseman created the television series. Each episode is directed by Euros Lyn and written by Oseman. Walters, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman executive produce the series alongside Oseman and Lyn.

Oseman finds working on a television show “such a different process” from writing and drawing the Heartstopper graphic novels on her own. “I was a self-employed writer and I would just do everything by myself. And now I’m working on something that has a huge team of people,” she said. “I’ve learned so much about how TV shows are made and I’ve just had a lot of fun making something with other people. That’s really not something I’ve ever done before.”

Walters and Oseman struck an immediate bond when they decided to partner up on creating Heartstopper for Netflix in 2019. Oseman recalls how she got along with Walters right away since “his vision for [the show] was exactly what I wanted. Patrick just cared so much about the story, and that was really important to me. You can’t just give it to anyone.”

Walters knew other people were vying to work with Oseman, so he went into their meeting with a feeling of, “I’ve got to show Alice how much I love this. It wasn’t a difficult task — I was a real fanboy,” he said. 

As a teenager, Walters had curly, dark hair like Charlie’s. “I brought a picture of myself at that age to show Alice,” he said. “I felt very protective of the characters already.”

Are there any photos from Heartstopper Season 2? 

You bet! Check them out in this gallery right here.

What is the release date of Heartstopper Season 2?

Season 2 of Heartstopper will premiere on Netflix on Aug. 3. But in the meantime, relive the magic of the word hi with a rewatch of Season 1. Nellie would approve. And don’t forget — Season 3 of Heartstopper is also on the way.

Every Single ‘Hi’ in Heartstopper