“It’s the end as we know it,” Sex Education creator Laurie Nunn tells Tudum about the fourth — and, officially, the final — season of her Netflix hit. 

That’s right: The upcoming Season 4 (or, as they say across the pond, “Series 4”) will also be the conclusion of Sex Education. It’s not something Nunn was certain of when she and the writers began scripting the season, but “during that process, it just started to feel very clear that the stories were coming to an end, the characters were being left in a place that I felt really good about it. I felt happy for them, and I felt like I’ve said everything that I want to say with these characters at this time.”

Bittersweet as it always is to say goodbye, don’t be too sad, because English teens Otis (Asa Butterfield), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Maeve (Emma Mackey), Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood), Cal (Dua Saleh), Ruby (Mimi Keene), Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling), Viv (Chinenye Ezeudu), and the rest of the gang will get a proper send-off with most of them starting off Season 4 not at Moordale, but at the high-tech, progressive Cavendish Sixth Form College. You can see new photos of Otis, Eric, Maeve, and the rest of the gang in the gallery below — and watch the brand new trailer above. 

At their idyllic-seeming new school — there’s yoga on the lawn, a welcoming, queer-friendly atmosphere and plenty of sustainability efforts to satisfy any health and wellness nut — they meet the new popular crowd, the Coven (Anthony Lexa, Felix Mufti, Alexandra James). There’s even a rival sex therapist to Otis named O (Thaddea Graham) and a familiar face, Isaac (George Robinson), who’s studying art.

Also returning, of course, are Gillian Anderson as Otis’ sex therapist mom, Jean, and the Groff family — Connor Swindells as Adam; Alistair Petrie as Adam’s strict, ex-headmaster dad, Michael Groff; and Samantha Spiro as Adam’s mom, Maureen Groff.

Other newcomers for Season 4 include Dan Levy as Thomas Molloy, Maeve’s American writing instructor, and Lisa McGrillis as Jean’s younger sister, Joanna. Read on to find out what to expect from Sex Education’s final semester, out Sept. 21.

When does Sex Education Season 4 take place?

“We have skipped forward in time a couple of months,” Nunn says. “Maeve is in America, which is where we left her on the bus, going off to study. The Moordale Secondary students are starting at a new school called Cavendish College, which is very different from Moordale. It’s very progressive and woke, and it makes the Moordale students feel like they’re little fish in a big pond.”

Who are the new characters in Season 4?

The new popular group is called “the Coven,” featuring three new faces — actors Felix Mufti, Anthony Lexa, and Alexandra James. Says Nunn, “We’re really looking forward to people meeting them as they’re a lot of fun.”

Making sure Moordale is populated with new and exciting people is up to casting director Lauren Evans, says Nunn. “She’s just brilliant at finding really fresh, new talent. It was very much a Rubik’s cube: We wanted to make sure that these three new characters had really great chemistry together. Abbi and Roman (Lexa and Mufti) are a trans power couple, so that was a really important piece to get right. In many ways, the Coven is the mirror image of our old popular group. But they believe it’s cool to be kind. They’re very forward-thinking and generous, and we wanted to find people who embodied that feeling of sunniness and openness.”

Who is O in Sex Education?

Thaddea Graham (The Letter for the King, The Irregulars) plays Cavendish’s new rival for Otis. “She’s just brilliant,” enthuses Nunn about Graham. “That was a really specific bit of casting that we knew we needed to get right because it had to be someone who could keep Otis on his toes. Otis starts at Cavendish, and quickly realizes that his ambition to start an ethical new sex therapy clinic has been thwarted, because there’s already a talented sex therapist called O on campus, and this becomes the catalyst for Otis’ journey in Series 4.”

How have the Sex Education characters changed from Seasons 1 through 4? 

“If you go back and watch where they all started, they’ve really grown up so much and changed so much,” says Nunn. “In Series 4, we’re seeing our characters getting closer to launching themselves into the adult world. They’re right on the precipice of leaving being a teenager behind, and with that comes a lot of pressure. That feeling of limbo between being a child and a grown-up is something we’re exploring in quite a particular way in this series. All of them have evolved hugely since Series 1.”

Are the parents still part of Sex Education?

In short, yes. “We always have parent characters in the show,” says Nunn. “It’s such a big ensemble piece, so it’s picking and choosing which characters’ family lives we might explore in each series. We always spend time with Otis and his mom, Jean, and I think in this series that storyline is a bit darker than normal. Jean’s going through a really difficult time. She has a new baby and isn’t coping that well with the reality of being a single mum again. We’re introduced to Jean’s sister, Joanna, who she has a close but dysfunctional relationship with, and discover more about Jean’s past and how she became the woman that she is.  

“We also spend time with the Groffs,” adds Nunn. “Adam’s relationship with his dad is progressing. Mr. Groff has hit rock bottom in Series 3 and in Series 4, we’re going to see him try and rebuild his life and work on his broken relationship with his family. We also spend time with Cal and their mum, Nicky (Andi Osho). This is the first time we’ve been behind the curtain of Cal’s home life. We get to understand more about Cal’s internal struggles and how they’re navigating conversations around their identity at home.”

What big issues does Sex Education cover?

“I think often, when I’m writing, it’s not until I get to the end that I realize there’s been a lot of quite similar themes going on with different characters,” says Nunn. “In this series, we’re really exploring the idea of failure, we’re exploring identity, and our characters are really grappling with the idea of identity and acceptance. With that, mental health goes hand in hand.” 

Nunn points out: “We’ve explored mental health issues in every series of the show in some way, but it affects so many people. It’s a universal experience, but particularly when you’re a teenager and everything feels so heightened. Even the smallest mistake can feel like life and death when you’re 17. We wanted to explore different facets of mental health, whether you are experiencing anxiety, depression, or loneliness. It’s really important to be able to vocalize it and to ask for help.”

A message for Sex Education fans

“You know what? I spend most of my time in my pajamas in front of a laptop locked up in a bedroom, writing. So I forget that lots of people watch the show and connect with it,” Nunn says. “When I hear people saying that they’ve seen something of themselves reflected in some of these characters, I still find it really overwhelming. It very much was at the core of why I wanted to write the show in the first place — just to make something that would’ve made me feel less alone when I was 17, because I found being a teenager very, very difficult as a lot of people do. When I hear that people are connecting with [the show] in that way, it makes the writing process feel really worth it because it can definitely be a challenge at times.”

Have we seen the last of Moordale and all these characters?

Not necessarily. “I’m definitely taking a break and thinking about other things,” says Nunn. “But Moordale is a really rich world, and writing about teenagers is always a lot of fun. So, I think that there’s always potential for more to be explored in that world.”

What was the best part of making this series? 

“Honestly, Sex Education is such a team effort,” Nunn says. “It just would not exist without huge amounts of tireless work and collaboration from so many people, from the writer’s room to the directors, producers, cast, and crew and right the way through to the postproduction team. 

“The show has so much love that’s been put into it,” Nunn says. “Everyone that works on it really cares about the finished product, and I think that you can feel that love and care in the show.”

When does Sex Education Season 4 come out?

Go back to school — for the final time — on Sept. 21. Check out the synopsis for each episode below: