Bridgerton fans long been speculating about which couple would take center stage in season 4, and Netflix has finally confirmed that it will be Benedict and Sophie.
“Benedict Bridgerton’s Season 4 story? Let us pour some tea,” the caption from the official Bridgerton X account on Tuesday, July 23. “Despite his elder and younger brothers both being happily married, Benedict is loath to settle down — until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.”
The first two seasons of the Netflix period drama followed the order of Julia Quinn’s book series. Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset’s (Regé-Jean Page) love story from the first novel, The Duke and I, came to life during season 1, and Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) fell for each other during season 2 as they did in the second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me.
While fans initially expected season 3 to continue the trend, executive producer Shonda Rhimes hinted in March 2022 that the show would stray from the existing formula.
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“There’s eight Bridgerton siblings, so we’re planning on following each one of the siblings’ romantic stories,” Rhimes told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “We’re not necessarily going in order, but we are going to be seeing each of the siblings and their stories.”
Two months later, Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington on the show, confirmed that her character and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) would be the leads of season 3, despite their book, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, being the fourth in Quinn’s series.
Although Benedict Bridgerton’s (Luke Thompson) romance with Sophie Beckett is the focus of the third book, An Offer From a Gentleman, the team behind the Netflix show opted to skip over their story because of the existing connection between Colin and Penelope.
“I really feel like it’s Colin and Penelope’s time. Because we’ve been watching both of these actors on our screens since season 1, we’ve already invested in them a little bit. We know who they are as people,” showrunner Jess Brownell told Variety in May 2022. “I feel like, especially in the last season, there are these moments of tension between them where it’s like, Colin walks up to the line of almost realizing that Penelope has feelings for him but doesn’t quite get there. Instead of treading water on that dynamic, we wanted to push it into their season. It really felt like the perfect moment to tee it up.”
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As for Benedict, Brownell felt that his character needed more time on his own before finding true love.
“[We have] really [been] getting to know Pen and Colin. We’ve been watching Pen’s crush and seeing how oblivious Colin is to it. That’s a dynamic that you can only play out for so long before something has to change,” she told Entertainment Weekly in December 2023. “This really felt like the right time to lean into what’s been set up with them. On the Benedict side, he’s such a fun character and such a fan favorite that we are really excited to play with him for a little bit more and let him have more fun before he settles down.”
Season 3 introduced another deviation from the books when Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) love interest was swapped from Michael to Michaela (Masali Baduza).
“The reveal of Michaela versus Michael — from the books — is something that I’ve been pitching from season 1 of the show,” Brownell told Teen Vogue earlier this year. “My approach to telling a queer story on Bridgerton has been to look to the books for thematic cues. I didn’t want to just insert a queer character for queer character’s sake.”
Brownell noted that the show started dropping hints two seasons later, adding, “My hope is that watching this season, people see how we’re telling a piece of that story, even starting in episode 1 of season 3 with Francesca, in terms of all of the debutantes having always imagined what they wanted their husbands to be like. Francesca realizes, ‘I’ve never thought about that, actually. Why is that?’ It was a thread we were playing with.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
