Netflix drops trailer for upcoming Heartbreak High reboot featuring non-binary roles and a bisexual character who ‘has slept with half the girls – and even a few boys – at school’
Netflix has announced that the reboot of the beloved Aussie series Heartbreak High will drop on the streaming giant’s platform on September 14.
Set in the fictional Hartley High, the eight-episode series is an update of the ’90s high school drama which made Callan Mulvey, who played bad boy Bogdan Drazic, and Home and Away star Ada Nicodemou household names.
A flashy new trailer featuring a line-up of gay and non-binary characters gives fans a taste of the show’s 21st century makeover.
Netflix has announced that the reboot of the beloved Aussie series Heartbreak High will drop on the streaming giant’s platform on September 14
The show is the first major locally produced drama series from Netflix since the pandemic.
In the preview, characters are seen partying, doing drag and being chased by police.
They will navigate sex, romance and violence as they come of age.
One scene shows a character whose face has been badly beaten, while in another a female character vandalizes a car.
A flashy new trailer featuring a line-up of gay and non-binary characters gives fans a taste of the show’s 21st century makeover
A more comical moment shows a boy and girl’s chess game interrupted when they are ‘pranked’ by a giant pink paper mache sex toy.
Meanwhile, there are brief glimpses of teenagers engaging in same-sex lovemaking.
The trailer finishes with one character looking out into the schoolyard saying, ‘honey we’re home.’
In the preview, characters are seen partying, doing drag and being chased by police
Produced by Netflix and Freemantle, the cast features Actor James Majoos as Darren, who goes by they/them pronouns and is described as ‘snarky’ and ‘brash’.
Bryn Chapman-Parish meanwhile plays Spider, who is described as ‘a sprinkling of incel’ and ‘class clown’.
Gemma Chua-Tran plays Sasha, an ‘out lesbian at the school’ who goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns.
The creators of the Netflix re-boot say they want the new version to ‘have life of their own’
Josh Heuston will depict Dusty, a bisexual character who ‘has slept with half the girls – and even a few boys – at school’.
The creator of the new series, Hannah Carroll Chapman, says the reboot has a ‘life of its own’.
Speaking at the Screen Forever trade conference in March she talked about the importance of the show being relevant to today’s teens.
The Heartbreak High reboot will give be relevant to today’s teens say its creators
She said wanted to avoid the show being a nostalgia piece for grown-ups.
‘I’m hoping that there’s a nice balance there, that people who love the original show feel the essence of that show,’ Chapman said, according to Variety. ‘But that’s very much for a younger generation.
Itself a spin-off of the 1993 film The Heartbreak Kid, the original series was praised for its multicultural cast, as well as its willingness to tackle gritty issues, from drugs to romance to religion to shoplifting and homelessness.
Salvatore Coco and Ada Nicodemou in the original Heartbreak High
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