'Heartstopper' Announces Season 3 Premiere with a Billie Eilish-Fueled Teaser

Move over Taylor Swift, Heartstopper is welcoming a new pop sensation to its soundtrack. The beloved webcomic adaptation about queer love, friendship, and the enduring roller coaster that is high school released a teaser for its upcoming third season, backed by a tantalizing snippet of a track from Billie Eilish’s forthcoming album. 

The first two seasons of Heartstopper followed high school students Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) in a charming boy-meets-boy love story surrounded by friends going through their own struggles and triumphs in life, love, and coming-of-age. In the teaser, Charlie ponders whether the time is right to tell Nick he loves him. 

The official synopsis for Season 3 hints at some more serious conversations for our protagonists: 

Charlie would like to tell Nick that he loves him. Nick also has something important to say to Charlie. As the summer holiday ends and the months race on, the friends begin to realise that the school year will come with both its joys and its challenges. As they learn more about each other and their relationships, plan social events and parties and start thinking about university choices, everyone must learn to lean on those they love when life doesn't go to plan.

It’s exhilarating to see Billie Eilish potentially included on the soundtrack since the first two seasons have established Heartstopper as quite a bellwether for Gen Z indie pop trends. The show’s first season featured primarily up-and-coming indie pop artists like Baby Queen, Orla Garland, and beabadobee, all of whom got a well-deserved career boost from the show. Each season has reached for ever greater heights with the artists it includes while still staying true to the smaller artists who were the bread and butter of the first season. 

Season 2 set its sights for top of the charts with a song by Taylor Swift herself, with the show’s music supervisor hinting that Swift provided the song for a lower fee because she was so touched by the show. Season two also included tracks from established queer indie darlings like Lucy Dacus, Christine and the Queens, and Tegan and Sara. The soundtrack is perhaps the greatest value added to the TV adaptation. It captures the laugh-til-you-cry, heart-bursting-out-of-your-chest feeling of being a teenager. (Shoutout to the Season 1 soundtrack for providing six of my top ten songs on Spotify the year the first season premiered.) 

Still riding high from her success on the Barbie movie soundtrack, Billie Eilish is a natural fit for Season 3. She’s set to release her next album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on May 17, 2024, which will include “Birds of a Feather,” the song in the Heartstopper teaser. 

Eilish, much like Heartstopper star Kit Connor, has faced intense scrutiny and pressure online to clarify her queer identity. Just weeks ago, she gave her Coachella audience a first glimpse of her new album by performing the still unreleased single “Lunch,” a song that she said was part of her own queer self-discovery. All of this, plus her unofficial status as the voice of Gen Z, make her perfect to help launch the next season of Heartstopper.

Season 3 will see the return of the beloved Paris Gang, including Charlie (Joe Locke), Nick (Kit Connor), Tao (William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney—now a Doctor Who star as well), Tara (Corinna Brown), Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), Isaac (Tobie Donovan), Imogen (Rhea Norwood), Sahar (Leila Khan), and Charlie's sister Tori (Jenny Walser). 

The show will also add new cast members: Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Hayley Atwell (The Long Song), and Eddie Marsan (Ridley Road). Like the two before it, the third season will be eight episodes. It will bid goodbye to director Euros Lyn (Doctor Who) and welcome new director Andy Newbery (Hidden, 15 Days). 

Heartstopper Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on Netflix, with Season 3 to premiere on October 3, 2024.