Jonathan Bailey addressed whether his days playing Anthony Bridgerton are numbered after season 4.
“I’ve never been someone who’s like, ‘Thanks, bye.’ It’s not in my nature,” Bailey, 37, told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, June 19, when asked about his future on the hit Netflix series. “There’s a real sense of brotherly pride I feel in it.”
Bailey went on to subtly spoil upcoming season 4 scenes, adding. “I was filming a wedding on a Monday morning. People know that people get married in Bridgerton — that’s not a spoiler, right?”
Bridgerton, which is based on the book series written by Julia Quinn, centers around members of the wealthy Bridgerton family as they search for love in 19th century London. Season 1 followed Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset’s (Regé-Jean Page) romance, who were the central couple in the first book, The Duke and I.
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Season 2, meanwhile, took inspiration from The Viscount Who Loved Me, which followed Anthony Bridgerton (Bailey) finding love with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Despite Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) being the subject of the third novel — An Offer From a Gentleman — his love story with newcomer Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) was pushed to season 4.
Instead, the third season focused on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) as seen in Quinn’s book Romancing Mister Bridgerton. Benedict then became the season 4 lead but with four more seasons left to go, some former cast members have stepped away from the show.
Page, 37, became the most memorable exit when he chose to wrap up one season in.
“They’re free to do as they like,” Page told Variety in July 2022 after being asked about a recasting for Simon. “Shonda and I had a wonderful conversation at the end of season 1. We were quite happy with how we stuck the landing on that one. We did so well on that redemptive arc that people forget that Simon was kind of horrific. He was the best example of a Regency f***boy that any of us had come across.”
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Page continued: “And so, because we came around full circle so well, because we stuck that landing, you’re left with this great feeling. You really do have to be brave about ending stories like that.”
While Bridgerton didn’t recast Simon, Page has stood by his decision not to return. Dynevor, 30, later confirmed her own exit from the series, which didn’t appear to be her choice. Bailey, meanwhile, acknowledged that there may come a time when he was to leave due to his own busy schedule.
“I look forward to, in another however many years, when we’ve done the eighth season to sit around and be like, ‘Look what we all did together,’“ he added. “I know how much I love long-running series. I know how important familiarity of character and story and consistency is in these long-running series.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
