A timeline of Josh O'Connor playing queer characters (past and future)

Casting directors in queer films love Josh O'Connor!

Josh O'Connor is one of the most booked and busy actors in mainstream queer cinema.

Besides playing Prince Charles on Netflix's The Crown, the 34-year-old British actor is known for playing a fading tennis athlete entangled in a three-way love triangle with a fellow tennis pro and his wife in the 2024 Luca Guadagnino film Challengers.

However, that's not the only queer role O'Connor has played in his career... and there's more to come, too!

Keep scrolling to check out the high-profile queer characters that Josh O'Connor has been cast to play.

Johnny Saxby — 'God's Own Country'

O'Connor's first gay role — and one of the roles that catapulted him into stardom — was in Francis Lee's God's Own Country. In this 2017 British romantic drama, O'Connor plays Johnny: a young man who works on his family farm and falls in love with Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian migrant worker hired to help out.

O'Connor was also attached to a previously announced, unnamed horror project from Lee about "class and queerness," although it is unknown if O'Connor's character would be gay. No further updates on the film have come out since it was announced in 2021.

God's Own Country is streaming on Tubi.

Patrick Zweig — 'Challengers'

In 2024's Challengers, O'Connor played Patrick Zweig — an aging tennis pro with a lot of talent and not too much focus. The character seems to be in love with his best friend, fellow tennis pro Art (Mike Faist), and both of them are in love with Art's wife and coach, Tashi (Zendaya). It's a sexy, sweaty, and captivating watch.

Challengers is streaming on Prime Video.

David — 'The History of Sound'

O'Connor stars opposite Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers) in the upcoming film The History of Sound from director Oliver Hermanus, which has been acquired by Mubi for a theatrical and streaming release this year (via Variety). The film sees the pair playing two young men who fall in love as they "set out to record the lives, voices, and music of their fellow Americans" during World War I.

Leo — 'Separate Rooms'

The latest update on O'Connor's career playing queer characters is that he's attached to Luca Guadagnino's upcoming film Separate Rooms — an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli. It tells the story of an Italian writer named Leo throughout his relationship with his boyfriend Thomas.