Darragh Hand will be playing the Solitaire character in the new season of the Netflix hit.

By James Hibbs

Published: Monday, 27 November 2023 at 16:46 PM


As production on Heartstopper season 3 continues, the show has cast a major character from one of Alice Oseman’s graphic novels.

Michael Holden, a major character from the graphic novel Solitaire (which is set in the same universe as Heartstopper), will officially be introduced in season 3, to be played by actor Darragh Hand.

Hand has recently been seen on stage playing Marcus Rashford in Dear England, while he has also appeared in TV series including Silent Witness and Grace.

His casting was announced on the official Netflix account on X, which has recently been rebranded from Twitter, with a post saying: “Some of you already figured this out but for those who didn’t we’re thrilled to be welcoming Darragh Hand to the Heartstopper family for S3 – he’s playing Michael Holden!”

In Solitaire, Michael is a friend of Tori, Charlie’s sister, who is played by Jenny Walser and was introduced in season 1. She appears alongside Hand’s Michael in a first-look photo posted on Twitter.