After graffitiing popular culture with cartoon squigglies and launching the careers of various new British queeros, Heartstopper returned with its sophomore season last year to universal critical acclaim.

For those who somehow don’t know: the Netflix series is based on Alice Oseman’s beloved webcomic of the same name and follows the charming romance between high schoolers Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), while also exploring the lives of their close-knit circle: Tao (William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney), Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell).

Season two continued to receive praise for its unwavering focus on love, joy and acceptance, while breaking new ground for queer representation on the small-screen, as well as the young-adult genre.

While we wait with bated breath for more official announcements, from casting news to plot points, we’ve compiled a list of everything we know about the third season of Heartstopper below.

When will it be released?

On 13 May, Netflix confirmed the release date as 3 October with an adorable teaser that sees Charlie and Nick say “hi” (very out of character) and respectively compliment each other’s cap and vest. It was accompanied by an exclusive teaser of ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’, a track taken from Billie Eilish’s new album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.

Who is returning from the second season?

All of your Heartstopper favourites are thankfully set to return in season three.

This includes Joe Locke as Charlie, Kit Connor as Nick, Yasmin Finney as Elle, William Gao as Tao, Corinna Brown as Tara, Kizzy Edgell as Darcy and Tobie Donovan as Isaac.

More star power incoming: Jenny Walser as Tori, Cormac Hyde-Corrin as Harry, Rhea Norwood as Imogen, Fisayo Akinade as Nathan, Chetna Pandya as Coach Singh and Bradley Riches as James.

Season two introduced a plethora of new characters: Jack Barton as David, Leila Khan as Sahar, Nima Taleghani as Youssef, Bel Priestly as Naomi and Ash Self as Felix.

Again, we’re expecting them to all reprise their roles.