Heartstopper Forever ends in much the same way the flagship series, Heartstopper, began. In the Heartstopper series premiere, protagonist Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) is walking through a door, thinking about romance. Only, now, in the final seconds of finale film Heartstopper Forever, Charlie isn’t alone — he’s flanked by his boyfriend of more than two years, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). The pair has weathered real hardship, including the finale film’s breakup, but come out stronger for it. 

The boys talk about “borrowed” (aka stolen) hoodies and contemplate breakfast. While fans won’t see their next adventure, whatever it may be, they know Nick and Charlie’s love bubble is perfectly intact. Or, at least, that’s how creator, writer, and executive producer Alice Oseman wants fans to feel as they watch Heartstopper Forever fade to black in the culmination of more than a decade of work. 

“I hope people enjoy the ending. Wrapping up a story that’s been going on for so long is a challenge,” Oseman tells Tudum. “But I hope that people feel satisfied and that Heartstopper has brought them joy. I hope they feel like they can say, ‘These characters are going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. We love Heartstopper, but it’s okay that it’s come to an end.’"

The stars of Heartstopper, Connor and Locke, agree. “It feels like sending a kid off to university. There’s nostalgia but real melancholy,” Locke says. “It’s bittersweet,” adds Connor.  

So, how does Heartstopper Forever end? Who breaks up? Why do they break up? And what’s in store for their future, including the epilogue’s fast-forward? Keep reading as Oseman, Connor, and Locke explain all. 

Do Nick and Charlie get back together? 

Yes, don’t worry, Heartstopper Forever has a happy ending. Despite the aforementioned breakup (more on that below) Nick and Charlie end the movie more in love than ever. 

Their reunion occurs in the final act of the film, at just the perfect place: the beach where they had their first date back in Season 1. “It’s very full circle, in both a cinematic and thematic way,” Locke says. Connor continues, “That’s actually one of my favorite scenes in the film. I think it’s just a really lovely moment … That place encapsulates their relationship.” 

Or, as Oseman says, “It’s their beach.”

While at the beach, Nick and Charlie agree they’re deeply in love and believe their “teenage relationship” can last a lifetime. While they may have felt that first spark of young romance back in Season 1, they can now see a real future together. 

“It’s about revisiting those places from the beginning of their journey, but feeling how far they’ve come as a couple — how different things are,” Oseman explains. “It made a lot of sense to go back there because, in that conversation on the wall, they remind each other of the magic that they have as a pair.” 

The couple has also learned the key to keeping their relationship healthy. “What they realize is that whether one person is struggling more or less than the other, they’re both there for each other,” Oseman says. “That’s the equilibrium and the equality in their relationship: They’ll each be going through their own thing at different times, but they’re always going to be there for each other and want to help each other because they love each other.” 

Why do Nick and Charlie break up? 

Just before the hour mark of Heartstopper Forever, the breakup occurs. The split happens suddenly, while Nick and Charlie are at a party. While the fun rages downstairs, Nick finds himself upstairs, deep in contemplation. Eventually, Charlie tracks Nick down, and the latter asks if his boyfriend is “mad” at him. That question begins a complicated conversation about how both boys view their relationship. 

“I came around to this idea that they love each other so much they actually convince themselves the other person would be better off without them,” Oseman says. Charlie believes he is preemptively hampering Nick from living his “best life” at university — that his boyfriend would much prefer the fun of burgeoning adulthood than “worrying” about him. Nick is sure his anxiety (about the future, his family, and their relationship) is keeping Charlie from his next evolution. 

“They love each other so much that they want the other person to be happy,” Oseman continues. “They convince themselves that they should break up because that is what will let the other person have a happier life, which is ridiculous.” 

Locke and Connor knew about the prospect of Nick and Charlie’s breakup before they even began filming Season 1 of the series. “We were haunted by the audiobook of the breakup,” Connor says. While Nick and Charlie’s breakup isn’t in the six-volume Heartstopper graphic novel series that inspires the live-action adaptation, the split is in a short story Oseman penned called Nick and Charlie.  

“So with the film, I really wanted to combine the comics and this short story that I’d written, and find a way to make both work together,” Oseman says. “Because it really is interesting to see them go through a little bit of a breakup and how they find their way out of that. They come out stronger from that.” 

Locke is also pleased to see the characters put to the test. “I’m really glad that it is in the film. It’s a big part of the story,” he says.

How is Nick doing? 

Much of Heartstopper Seasons 1–3 explores Charlie’s mental health journey, including his disordered eating and self-harm recovery. Heartstopper Forever turns the spotlight on Nick’s well-being, as he deals with his anxiety. 

“It’s become clear to me as I’ve written Heartstopper how much Nick’s past has affected him and is still affecting him. It’s not something that I’d really explored before in Heartstopper,” Oseman says. 

“It’s really interesting how much Nick loves Charlie. He’s always wanted to be there for Charlie and support him through his period of crisis,” Oseman continues. “But in doing so, Nick has probably kind of ignored a few of those issues of his own, and now Charlie is becoming aware of them. So the roles are kind of flipping the other way.” 

We see hints of Nick’s struggles as Heartstopper Forever heads toward its breakup. Nick gets defensive when he notices someone possibly flirting with Charlie, and later picks a fight on the rugby pitch. After the rugby tussle, Nick winds up in the emergency room with a black eye. 

Connor explains that Nick’s anxiety stems from his complicated feelings about his father, Stephane (Thibault de Montalembert). “ The whole familial aspect was something that I was interested in,” he says. “And obviously, the Dad aspect was a huge factor for Nick. That’s something that we wanted to explore in the film.” 

Surprisingly, Nick finds real solace in the last place he would expect: a conversation with his older brother, David (Jack Barton). As Nick hides out in his bedroom post-breakup, David is finally honest with his little brother. He admits that he doesn’t idolize their father — in fact, David thinks Stephane is a “shit dad.” 

“The thing that fascinated me the most was that Stephane is the key factor in a lot of Nick’s insecurities, anxieties, and complexes. The one person who was even more affected by him was David,” Connor says. “I thought that it would be nice to have David acknowledge the fact that he has been affected — and that he’s become someone that he doesn’t want to be. They’re both able to relate to these things.” 

How does Heartstopper Forever end? 

The film essentially has two endings. The first closes out the school year for Nick, Charlie, and all their friends. Nick has started to unpack the root of his anxieties, and Charlie has deeply invested in his relationships outside of Nick. So, everyone is free to party it up at a preprom celebration. 

After breaking out the dance moves, giggles, and bottles with their best friends, Charlie and Nick — who just so happen to be at the mansion of reformed bully Harry (Cormac Hyde-Corrin) — run upstairs to his ballroom. Suddenly, they’re back in the place where they first kissed. 

“That’s another one of the big references. I always knew that’s where I wanted to end the story,” Oseman says. “To go back to that place where the whole story exploded from? It’s like their sacred place, really.” 

However, there’s more to the scene than mere nostalgia. “It’s going back, but it’s also feeling how far they’ve come and how different things are now in a good way. It’s really fun and really lovely,” Oseman adds. 

Locke and Connor both felt the intensity of filming in Harry’s mansion again. “It was one of those days where we were like, ‘This is quite insane that we’re here again,’” Connor says. Locke continues, “It was weird, in a really good way. If you’d told us when we were shooting that first kissing scene that, four years later, we would be doing the fourth installment of the series and back in the same room, filming the ending, we would have been shocked.” 

So, you can only imagine how gobsmacked the past versions of the cast and crew would be over the sweet epilogue that follows the prom party. The second ending of Heartstopper Forever picks up three months later, with Nick at the University of Leeds. Charlie visits his boyfriend, and they share a romantic weekend together. One morning, they open up the memory book that reminds them of all the beautiful moments they’ve already shared.  

“It’s so meaningful for Nick and Charlie to be looking back on all their memories. But it’s also meaningful for us because we’ve been on this journey with Heartstopper and with Nick and Charlie,” Oseman says. “It’s really special to be going through those memories together at the end of the film, saying, ‘Hey, this thing happened. It was really joyful and beautiful. We had a great time.’” 

Which Easter eggs should I look out for? 

As Heartstopper Forever comes to a close, you may be wondering which references to prior installments you may have missed. Oseman’s favorite comes early in the film. “The first one that pops into my head is the snow scene, which is a really direct reference to Heartstopper Season 1, where Nick and Charlie are just having fun,” they say. 

The scene comes after they disagree about Nick’s difficulty with opening up, and subsequent dangerous behavior on the rugby pitch. “There’s a little bit of tension between them,” Oseman says. “Charlie makes the decision to throw a snowball at Nick and it’s almost like he’s saying, ‘Let’s just go back and remind ourselves who we are and what our relationship is. We’re Nick and Charlie. We can have fun in the snow and be silly together even if we’ve had a little argument.’" 

What do the memory book’s blank pages mean? 

In the last scene of Heartstopper Forever, the boyfriends flip through the memory book Charlie made for Nick. While many of the pages are emblazoned with mementos of their relationship, many more pages are left empty, ready to be filled with future keepsakes.

“That was a really important thing to put in there because it says the story goes on. This isn’t the end for Nick and Charlie,” Oseman clarifies. “They’re still only 18 and 19. They’ve got their whole lives ahead of them. There will be more photos. We don’t have to see them. We just know that they’re going to be okay.” 

How does Heartstopper Forever end for everyone else? 

The fast-forward reveals more than just Nick and Charlie’s fate. The sequence, titled “Epilogue,” also reveals what happens to their friends: 

Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao) spend much of Heartstopper Forever discussing the future — and what Elle’s desire to go to Berlin to work on her art means for their relationship. The couple’s on-again, off-again nature doesn’t deter Tao from hopping on a train to see Elle’s art exhibit in Germany. 

“Elle’s story is so interesting. Over the years, I’ve gone back and forth so many times about whether she and Tao should be together at the end, or whether they should break up,” Oseman says. “What we feel at the end of Tao and Elle’s story is that they love each other very much, and their relationship has been so special to them. But they do both need a little bit of freedom. They need to go off and do their own thing, which I think is a very relatable experience for young people in a relationship.”

Despite the space, Oseman says the love is still there between them. “So that’s why I wanted to have that moment in the epilogue where they reunite, and it’s unclear whether that might mean getting back together … maybe not,” Oseman teases. “But I think I really like it because it also shows that we don’t have to wrap everything up when you leave school. There’s a long life ahead, and so many things can happen.” 

Around the halfway mark of Heartstopper Forever, Tara (Corinna Brown) tells Elle at a house party that she has asked Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) to go interrail traveling with her around Europe after graduation. In the epilogue, we learn Darcy said yes. The couple runs off into the future together, backpacks on and hands clasped. 

Resident bookworm Isaac isn’t leaving behind the written word anytime soon. Instead, he’s working on his own book at the coffee shop where Charlie is a barista. Will Charlie end up in the acknowledgments? “We can talk about it,” Isaac offers, beaming. 

Charlie has a heart-to-heart with his sister prior to his reconciliation with Nick. During that conversation, Tori tells her little brother she’s asexual, which she could have sworn Charlie already knew. The admission allows Tori and Charlie to discuss the former’s relationship with her boyfriend, Michael (Darragh Hand). Tori explains that although their connection might not make sense to other people, it makes them both very happy. 

“It’s so powerful and also so queer, which — that’s what we do in Heartstopper. That scene is very, very precious to me,” Oseman says. 

In fact, Tori as a whole is dear to Oseman. “Tori’s such a special character to me, because she was my first ever protagonist. She was the main character of my first book, and her asexual identity is something that I’ve figured out myself over the years,” she continues. “It’s really meaningful to me, and hopefully to many other people, to see a character come out as ace, since it’s still a rare thing to see onscreen. It’s also really poignant in that conversation, the way she talks about her relationship with Michael.” 

The sweetness of Tori and Michael continues into the epilogue, where we see the former studying at university. Michael calls her to share the good news: He’s made the British Olympic ice-skating training squad. Michael is officially going for the gold. Normally reserved, Tori is so excited that she’s willing to make a ruckus in a library. Now that’s the real win. 

These two are never apart for long. In their vignette, Imogen (Rhea Norwood) — who is now a happily out lesbian — gleefully runs through a backstage venue, only to find Sahar (Leila Khan). The girls hug before Sahar bolts out on stage. She’s a solo act now, and the crowd loves her. 

Keep feeling the love yourself by (re)watching Heartstopper Forever — or streaming Heartstopper Forever: The Official Podcast. For even more from your favorite UK teens, keep an eye out for the behind-the-scenes special Ending on a Hi, arriving on July 24.