Netflix fans ‘gutted’ as Olivia Colman reveals she won’t be returning to Heartstopper season three

Fans of the Netflix drama Heartstopper have been left “gutted” by the news that Olivia Colman will not be returning for season three.

The Oscar-winning British actor, 50, played the role of Sarah Nelson, the mother of Kit Connor’s Nick, in the first two seasons of the popular teen show.

However, in a new interview with Forbes, Colman revealed that her character would not be appearing in the forthcoming season.

“I couldn’t do number three. I couldn’t fit it in. I feel awful about that,” she said. “I feel like I was part of one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been part of.”

However, she did not write off the possibility that she could return in a prospective fourth season.

Fans of the show voiced their dismay on social media, with many re-sharing what might be the series’ most celebrated scene, in which Kit comes out as gay to his mother.

“I’m so gutted but thank you to Olivia Colman for giving us this scene,” one person wrote, alongside the clip.

“Olivia Colman you were the best Sarah Nelson we could’ve asked for,” another commented.

“Olivia Colman thank you for playing the best Sarah Nelson we could ever have had. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to play her,” someone else wrote.

Heartstopper is adapted from an acclaimed graphic novel by Alice Oseman, who also wrote the TV adaptation.

In a two-star review of the show’s second season, critic Nick Hilton described the show as “a chaste look at young love, focused far more on its inclusivity and diversity agenda than any attempt to shock or titillate”.

He continued: “Set at the fictional Truham Grammar (and Higgs Girls) Schools, Heartstopper exists in a generic non-urban milieu, bursting with primary colours and noodly indie love songs. The show has been rightly praised, not just for its candour in depicting themes usually unaddressed in teen romances, but for its sweetness.

“Being gay or being trans is not, here, the misery business that Hollywood thinks. Instead, it’s just another thread in the tapestry of adolescence. ‘I have a boyfriend,’ Charlie proclaims, proudly, to his friends. ‘Yes, we’re all fully aware!’ Tao replies wearily. It’s a shame then, that in this rush to be affirming, Heartstopper forgets to be good.”

Heartstopper is available to stream now on Netflix. A release date for season three is yet to be announced.