The Big Picture

• Jonathan Bailey joins Heartstopper Season 3 as Instagram influencer Jack Maddox, one of Charlie's crushes.
• Bailey's career is on the rise with recent successes in Fellow Travelers and an upcoming role in the Wicked adaptation.
• Bailey expressed his personal connection to Heartstopper as an openly queer man and praised its impact on viewers.

Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey is bringing his talents to Heartstopper for Season 3! Per Variety, the 36-year-old actor and recent Critic’s Choice Television Award recipient will cameo on the queer-themed teen Netflix series as Jack Maddox, an Instagram influencer classicist and one of young Charlie’s (Joe Locke) celebrity crushes. Bailey’s casting was originally announced in late April. His turn in Heartstopper Season 3 is the latest win for the English performer, who has seen his career reach new heights over the last few months.

Along with the upcoming third season of Bridgerton later this May, Bailey had a true star-making turn as sensitive congressional staffer Tim “Skippy” Laughlin in the Showtime adaptation of Fellow Travelers. The 2023 mini-series, which additionally featured Matt Bomer as Tim’s lover, Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, and Allison Williams as Fuller’s long-betrayed wife Lucy, won Bailey his first Critic’s Choice Award for Best Actor. He will next be seen in yet another adaptation; this one, of the Broadway musical Wicked, set to hit screens in November 2024.

Jonathan Bailey Went Out of His Way to Be Cast In 'Heartstopper' Season 3

While attending Monday’s Met Gala in New York City, Bailey shared with Variety the impact Heartstopper has had on him as an openly queer man. “Like so many people, I watched the first [season] and thought it was one of the biggest, most beautiful gifts to so many people,” Bailey stated, “and I wish I had that growing up.”

Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alice Osman, Heartstopper centers on two young schoolmates, the popular Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) and the recently outed Charlie Spring (Locke), who discover they have feelings for one another. Season 2 of Heartstopper wrapped in August 2023. Heartstopper Season 3 was announced with the renewal of Season 2 only a month after the series debuted on Netflix.

Bailey went on to reveal that he used personal connections to join Heartstopper for Season 3. “I had a mutual friend who knows [executive producer Patrick Walters] and I just said, ‘If there’s anything I could do to help and be a part of that story,” says Bailey. He continued, “It’s not just for our community. It’s for every person who is a member of a family who has a member of the LGBT+ community. It helps all of us.”

In a sweet aside, Bailey found time to witness Joe Locke’s final performance in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Barber of Demon Street, hours before his appearance at the Met Gala. Locke’s performance, according to Bailey, was both “amazing” and “electric.”

Heartstopper Season 3 will also feature appearances from Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning star Hayley Atwell and Ray Donovan’s Eddie Marsan as Charlie’s therapist. In a statement regarding the additions of Bailey, Atwell, and Marsan, Alice Osman expressed her excitement about their appearances and that she looked forward to “the Heartstopper fans [meeting] these new characters.”

The first two seasons of Heartstopper can currently be streamed on Netflix. Stay tuned at Collider for further updates.

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