Heartstopper Forever **½ (2026, Joe Locke, Kit Connor, William Gao) – Classic Movie Review 14,004

With Joe Locke and Kit Connor so engaging, the 2026 feature-length series finale film Heartstopper Forever is entertaining and very watchable, and a must see for fans of the TV show.

Kit Connor and Joe Locke star as Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring, in the 2026 British romantic drama film Heartstopper Forever directed by Wash Westmoreland and written by Alice Oseman. This feature-length series finale continues and concludes the Netflix TV series Heartstopper (2022–2024), created by Oseman.

Also in the cast are William Gao, Yasmin Finney, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Tobie Donovan, Jenny Walser, Rhea Norwood, Leila Khan, and Eddie Marsan, all reprising their roles from the TV show.

Kit Connor and Joe Locke star as English teenage schoolboys Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring, who are truly, madly, deeply in love, but new challenges lie ahead with Nick getting ready to leave for far-away Leeds university and Charlie taking on new responsibilities at school, triumphantly elected on the pro-queer ticket as head boy.

Heartstopper Forever is a rather disappointing feature film conclusion to an excellent TV series, thin on story, weak on credibility, focusing entirely on Nick and Charlie, with all other characters backgrounded, mere wallpaper. It provides a flimsy reason for a breakup between the two boys, a long period of pointless moping around, and a flimsy reason for getting together again. So much wishful thinking, so much romantic fantasy! Our boys have doubts, about each other, about whether teen romance ever lasts, about what true love really is, but never take drugs, smoke, vape, use sex apps or are unfaithful. They are so squeaky clean it’s really weird to see them having sex. Has Alice Oseman ever met any teenage boys?

Yet, if she is not to be praised for her attempts at realism, she is certainly to be enormously praised for promoting LGBTQIA+ inclusion, saying all the right things sweetly.

However, for all its failings, Heartstopper Forever is toothachingly nice, sweet and right on, and Joe Locke and Kit Connor put much more into it than the script deserves in the way of conviction, passion and depth. It ends with an epilogue, but doesn’t finish the story, and the whole film feels like an extended epilogue to the series, or perhaps series four cut into under two hours with all the scenes with all the other characters cut out.

Indeed, Alice Oseman had said she expected Heartstopper to run for four seasons to adapt her graphic novel series, but Netflix opted to commission a feature-length film as the series finale in lieu of a fourth season, reportedly because of a 30 per cent drop in viewing figures from the preceding season. 

Eddie Marson plays the video counsellor, unrewardingly, and the long awaited appearance by Derek Jacobi is just a fleeting cameo as Pete, an elderly customer in Charlie’s cafe. Jacobi’s real-life partner Richard Clifford portrays his character Pete’s partner, so that’s nice. Olivia Coleman is much missed as Nick’s mum, Sarah Nelson, replaced by Anna Maxwell Martin, briskly performing an unenviable task.

The storyline about Charlie being elected school head boy and befriending a bullied kid (Caleb Evers plays little Alfie) starts promisingly, then goes nowhere and is forgotten. In an odd turnaround, Charlie has become the stronger of the two boys, with his mental health struggles largely behind him (though he still needs support from his counsellor and posse of kindly buddies) and ironically it is this that provokes the breakup. Charlie feels he can’t support a mildly troubled Nick like Nick supported him. It’s not very clear what Nick is troubled about. Not that much actually, but in the confusion the two boys accidentally break up. Really? These are clever, intelligent boys, not silly soppy ones where that idea might just work. There’s a lot of musing about the nature of love and relationships, but it is on the greetings card level. An impassioned pro-trans speech is welcome though.

Heartstopper Forever may be a bit of a letdown, and that’s a real shame, but it is a gentle letdown. With Joe Locke and Kit Connor so appealing and easy to like, it is entertaining, slickly handled and very watchable, and a must see for fans of the series.

It was shot in England from 9 June 2025 to 27 July 2025, premiered at the Cineworld Leicester Square in London on 14 July 2026, and was released on Netflix on 17 July. 

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 14,004

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