Olivia Colman won't be back for the third season of Heartstopper

Bad news today for fans of critically acclaimed British coming-of-age series Heartstopper, as series star (and sole bona fide Oscar winner) Olivia Colman announced today that she won’t appear in its third season due to scheduling conflicts. Per THR, Colman issued an apologetic comment to fans of the show, which is based on the webcomic and graphic novel of the same name by Alice Oseman, telling Forbes that “I couldn’t do number three. I couldn’t fit it in. I feel awful about that.”

Colman appears in the series as Sarah Nelson, the mother of Kit Connor’s character Nick, half of its central romantic pairing. Given that the show is mostly focused on the lives of Nick, his eventual boyfriend Charlie (Joe Locke), and their various teen friends, it’s the kind of part that might be perceived as being a bit small for someone whose profile is riding as high as Colman’s—at least, until you get to a moment like the final scene of the show’s first season, when Nick comes out to his mum, and you go, “Oh, yeah, that’s why Olivia Colman would take this part.”

Colman herself certainly seems to agree, noting her real regret at not being around for the show’s third season. “I feel like I was part of one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been part of,” she said in the interview. Oseman, meanwhile, responded to the news on social media, saying that she and her fellow producers “tried absolutely everything we could” to find a way to work the series into Colman’s schedule, but it “wasn’t meant to be, and that’s just the way the TV world works sometimes.” Oseman clarified that Colman’s part would not be recast, and that a pivotal scene from the graphic novel that heavily features Sarah (and which is expected to be covered in the third season) has been “shifted” somewhat to maintain its impact. Oseman also expressed her hope that Colman could return for a potential fourth season of the show.