After nearly four years since Patrick Walters, executive producer at See-Saw, pitched the adaptation to creator Alice Oseman, Heartstopper has finally made its way to Netflix. It was a long journey but a fruitful one for Patrick. 

The queer webcomic is about two young boys in an English Grammar school, Nick and Charlie. They find love amidst the tumultuous pubescent years. 

Patrick had faith in the webcomic

Patrick read the first volume in 2018 before Hachette picked it up for publishing. 

“I remember I bought a copy via that Kickstarter campaign and I didn’t realize but Alice was actually sending those copies out from her bedroom,” he said.

Apparently, he told everyone in an internal meeting that he read this beautiful queer graphic novel that was different from what he had read before, with a sort of uplifting, joyful slice of queer representation for younger viewers.

Netflix was the first choice for Heartstopper due to its presence in 190 countries. And they wanted to target the young teen audiences. Turns out, the streamer welcomed the idea with open arms.

“And once we got in front of Netflix and they met Alice and we pitched them the vision, they were so positive that actually there was no time to think about anywhere else.”

How challenging was adapting Heartstopper on Netflix?

The webcomic already had a massive fan following. Naturally, Patrick felt a lot of pressure while developing the series. While it was nerve-wracking at first, director Euros Lyn and Alice Oseman‘s collaboration eased the process and brought the “magic”.

“Still the biggest challenge was casting. I think, overall, it was finding the cast because I truly believed from very early on that if we didn’t find the kind of magical essence to the cast, the whole thing would fall apart,” he confessed. The team received over 10,000 applications at the open casting call and eventually cast Joe Locke and Kit Connor in the leading roles.

And fans might expect a season 2 if the first season does well on the platform. Moreover, there is enough “source material” to produce more seasons!

Heartstopper is currently streaming on Netflix.