Olivia Colman has confirmed she will not be returning for the third series of Heartstopper.
The Oscar winner has appeared in the first two seasons of the hit Netflix teen drama, playing the on-screen mum of Kit Connor’s character.
“I couldn’t do number three. I couldn’t fit it in. I feel awful about that,” she said during a new interview with Forbes.
“I feel like I was part of one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been part of.”
However, she hasn’t ruled out a return in the future, insisting: “As long as it’s booked in advance, maybe I’ll be able to do it, yeah!”
While not part of the show’s principal cast, Olivia did appear in one of Heartstopper’s most iconic scenes, in which teenager Nick comes out as bisexual to his mum.
Filming on the third season of Heartstopper began in October last year, with the latest eight-episode series confirmed by Netflix to be dropping in the autumn.
It was revealed last year that the first episode of series three will be titled simply Love, and it didn’t take fans of the original Heartstopper book series long to get excited about what is in store for the new batch of episodes.
Joe Locke previously teased that the new instalments will be “darker” and “raunchier” than what’s come before in the show.
“We grow up with the characters more and this season is definitely a bit raunchier,” he revealed.
“It’s still Heartstopper. But it’s also that we deal with some darker issues. Charlie, my character – he deals with some quite severe mental health issues, which we tackle in this season, which I’m very excited for people to see.”
The first two seasons of Hearstopper are available to stream on Netflix now.