Joe Locke hints Darcy will be non-binary on Heartstopper podcast
Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson (right) with on screen girlfriend Tara Jones (Corinna Brown, left) in Heartstopper season three. (Netflix)
Joe Locke appears to have confirmed that Heartstopper favourite Darcy Olsson will come out as non-binary in season three of Netflix’s queer teen series in a recent podcast appearance.
Speaking on the brand new Heartstopper: The Official Podcast, Locke was asked by host and Drag Race UK champ Tia Kofi which of the fellow Heartstopper characters he would like to play if he wasn’t playing lead Charlie Spring.
“I was thinking Tao, but I’m going to find someone else now,” he said, after his co-star Kit Connor, who plays his on screen boyfriend Nick Nelson, said he would want to play Tao.
“I’m going to say Darcy, because I think that they are a really interesting character. [They] have a really great arc, especially this season and in season two. And they’re just a bit of fun,” Joe Locke explained.
The use of the pronoun “they”, and the insinuation that the character will go on a journey in the upcoming season, has led to some Heartstopper fans theorising that Darcy will come out as non-binary.
Darcy is played by actor Kizzy Edgell in the show, and Edgell previously identified as non-binary, using they/them pronouns. However last year, Edgell explained that they identify as transmasculine and now use both he/him and they/them pronouns.
When the very first look at Heartstopper season three dropped earlier this year via a behind-the-scenes clip from Netflix, fans noticed that Edgell seemed to be wearing a chest binder while in character as Darcy.
A chest binder is commonly worn by trans and non-binary people to help flatten their chest and provide a more male-presenting appearance.
The Heartstopper fandom was quick to declare that season three would be giving them “non-binary lesbian Darcy,” and now it seems certain that will be the case.
“Did Joe just use ‘they’ to refer to Darcy? ENBY DARCY IS REAL WAIT,” wrote on fan on X/Twitter, reacting to Locke’s pronoun use on the podcast.
The bulk of Darcy’s Heartstopper storylines up to this point have focussed on their sapphic relationship with Tara Jones (Corinna Brown).
Season two also saw the character navigating a difficult home life as it was insinuated that their mother is abusive.
Heartstopper season three will begin streaming on Netflix on 3 October, and will focus largely on the contents of Volume 4 and 5 of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper graphic novels.
It will see Charlie and Nick taking their relationship to a more “mature” place, aka, there will be a fair amount of sex.
Charlie will also be seen dealing with an eating disorder, while Nick will be left in turmoil as he focuses on his academic future and university choices.
New episodes of Heartstopper: The Official Podcast will drop every Monday until 3 October.
