Why Sebastian Croft’s Ben Hope won’t be in Heartstopper season three

As the Heartstopper crew gathers for the release of season three of the adorable teen drama, there’s one notable absentee: Sebastian Croft.

Throughout the first two seasons, Croft played Ben Hope, a closeted school bully who made life difficult for Charlie Spring, played by Joe Locke, and his boyfriend Nick Nelson (Kit Connor).

While some fans were hoping for Ben’s redemption in season three, it’s now official that Croft will not be reappearing in Alice Oseman’s hit show. “Ben’s role in Heartstopper is now complete,” the author told Netflix’s Tudum.

The role was a complicated one: playing the villain in a series loved by so many viewers. The character’s final scene was memorable: he to;d Charlie that he was leaving ahead of the new school year and apologised for how he’d treated him.  

Croft was pleased his “incredibly complicated” character got a complex conclusion. “Alice and I both felt strongly about him not having a redemption arc,” he said. 

“It’s a really beautiful way of having these two people who have been through a lot – Ben’s been horrible to Charlie – to have that conversation and explore it on a deeper level than I felt like we got to do in season one.” 

Croft might have waved goodbye to Truham Grammar but he was the lead in teen rom-com How To Date Billy Walsh and is set to star in six-part historical TV drama Dope Girls as well as slasher comedy Get Away. He revealed to PinkNews that he would “100 per cent” be interested in starring in a queer romance in the future.

“It’s exciting to see so many cool projects that have queer stories in the middle of them. I’m definitely excited about [it],” he said. “It’s nice to jump between a variety of characters and stories.” 

Although Ben won’t be seen in Heartstopper any more, there is still plenty of drama ahead, including Charlie and Nick planning to have sex for the first time and the former’s battle with an eating disorder.

In addition it seems as if Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) will be coming out as non-binary, and Yasmin Finney‘s Elle and William Gao’s Tao will confront the difficulties of gender dysphoria during sex.

Heartstopper season three is due to drop on Netflix on 3 October.