Culture

‘My heart just exploded’: Heartstopper and Young Royals fans react to crossover

By Sam Damshenas

16th October 2024

A long-awaited crossover between Netflix’s most beloved queer teen dramas has finally taken place, and fans are “exploding” with joy.

On 16 October, Young Royals star Edvin Ryding attended a performance of Broadway’s musical adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, starring Rachel Zegler and – of course – Kit Connor, the Emmy-winning actor behind Nick Nelson in Heartstopper. 

Thankfully, the gay gods made sure that we’d see evidence of the encounter, with Connor snapping a shot and sharing it to his Instagram Story. “Pleasure to meet the man in person,” he wrote. “Thank you for coming @edvinrydings.”

Ryding, who stars in Young Royals as Prince Wilhelm, described Connor as a “brilliant actor” and “brilliant person” in his own post, before advising fans to “see Romeo & Juliet on Broadway if u get the chance”.

Although it wasn’t the first crossover between the two series – Connor previously met Omar Rudberg, who plays Simon Erikkson in Young Royals – it did mark the first time Connor and Ryding joined forces. Naturally, fans came out in droves on social media to celebrate.

“I have been dreaming of this day FOR SO LONG I could cry [with] joy,” one fan wrote on Twitter/X, while another correctly said that it’s a “win for gay people”.

With both Heartstopper and Young Royals boasting inspirational stories of young LGBTQIA+ love and three-dimensional queer characters that don’t conform to harmful tropes, fans have continuously expressed desire in a crossover.

In a 2022 interview with GAY TIMES, Rudberg said it would be “fucking iconic”.

Ryding even shared the following idea: “If Nick and Charlie travelled to Stockholm… Maybe this is like season eight of Young Royals and Simon is a successful singer and the biggest one in Sweden. Charlie’s a big fan, so he takes Nick to Stockholm to see Simon sing. You see where I’m going here?”

He also suggested calling Alice Oseman and Lisa Ambjörn, the respective creators of Heartstopper and Young Royals, to “make them write something together”.

Sadly, Young Royals came to an end earlier this year with its brilliant third season and Heartstopper, which followed suit with a third season earlier this month, won’t be returning for “quite a while yet”.

In a recent interview with Tudum by Netflix, Oseman revealed that the sixth and final volume of the graphic novel needs to be completed before season four is released (or even begins production).

While we manifest a reality in which Prince Wilhelm and Simon fly to the UK and unexpectedly collide with Nick and Charlie in Heartstopper season four, check out the best reactions to Kit Connor and Edvin Ryding’s long-awaited get-together below.