Despite its popularity, beloved queer teen drama Heartstopper isn’t guaranteed a fourth season.
The show’s executive producer Patrick Walters told Deadline that he and the creative team behind the Netflix coming-of-drama are “working hard” on scoring a season four pickup in the face of funding challenges stemming from Heartstopper being a YA project, which are more difficult because they come from “nascent IP or original ideas that are hard to get over the line.”
“I think it’s because the audience is specific, the worry is does it feel niche and is it speaking to a wide enough audience in this specificity?” Walters told the publication. “The best YA nails those young voices and the current mood of a generation in whatever way, and it’s about trying to do that in a way that allows your broadcasting partner to say, ‘Yes, and this will also connect widely.’”
Netflix has yet to make an announcement about whether or not Heartstopper will continue, and although certain plot points have already been wrapped up on the show, there is more story left to tell since it is based on a popular LGBTQ+ YA graphic novel series by Alice Oseman, who has already announced plans for a sixth and final volume.
Walters has no formal update on a fourth season but said that “there are lots of moving parts” and “we are working hard on it.”
As popular as the show has been for the streaming behemoth, viewership was down from the high of the first two seasons. Season 3 ranked #130 among all of Netflix’s programs, amassed 10.9 million views from its October 3 release date until the end of 2024, and peaked at #4 in Netflix’s global Top 10 list. But that’s a 30% season-to-season drop off in viewership compared to season 2.
Walters explained that picky projects that are “risky” means that the future can be more uncertain.
“The challenge is what you need to do in this moment is to pitch something that feels specific and there is not precedent for it and it is moving the conversation on,” he said. “But that is a risk. Often I find you want to gravitate towards risky material and it needs that passion – but that’s a challenge.”
Hopefully, Heartstopper doesn’t meet the same fate as other beloved queer shows that were canceled too soon, like A League of Their Own, Our Flag Means Death, and Netflix’s I Am Not Okay With This.
