While Benedict and Eloise’s Bridgerton season 3 goodbye might have been short and sweet, it left a big Easter egg in its wake.
At the end of the season finale, which hit Netflix on Thursday, June 13, Eloise (Claudia Jessie) decided to leave London for the Scottish countryside. Her sister Francesca (Hannah Dodd) was already planning a move to the Highlands with her new husband, John Stirling (Victor Alli), and his cousin, Michaela (Masali Baduza).
After Eloise chooses to ditch the London society scene, she informs her older brother Benedict (Luke Thompson) and notes that she will return home soon enough.
“Do you think Mama would ever let me miss her masquerade ball?” Eloise says.
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While Netflix has yet to prominently feature Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmel) hosting the bash onscreen, it plays a pivotal role in Benedict’s literary love story.
In An Offer From a Gentleman, Julia Quinn’s third novel in her Bridgerton series, Benedict meets his eventual wife, Sophie Beckett, at the masked occasion. The pair have an effortless conversation on a balcony just outside the party, except Benedict fails to get her name. Sophie was wearing a mask, complying with the dress code, leaving Benedict unable to get a look at her face.
Benedict spends much of the rest of Offer attempting to find Sophie in a Cinderella-esque story line. Unbeknownst to the second-eldest Bridgerton sibling, Sophie is right under his nose the entire time, working as a maid for his family.
Eloise’s line about the “masquerade ball” has awakened the “Benophie” stans’ hopes that Benedict will be the next star of the show.
“BENEDICT BRIDGERTON SEASON 4 LEAD I’M SAT,” one fan wrote via X on Thursday.
Another added, “Benedict season 4 here we come! between the mention of the masquerade ball, his conversation with Eloise on the swings and the voiceover talking about looking toward the future with only him in shot … Sophie is coming!”
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Netflix has not announced which Bridgerton sibling will be the next lead, and 35-year-old Thompson has no idea if the honor will be his.
“The honest answer is ‘I don’t know,’ but I know it’s so lovely [and] one of the best things about TV jobs is you get to really explore a character long-form like that and sort of fill him in slowly,” Thompson said on The View earlier this month. “As long as I keep getting to do that, [but] obviously, it’d be great to really dive in at one point.”
It is also possible that Francesca will be the next season lead since a gender-swapped version of her book love interest arrived in the season 3 finale.
Bridgerton season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
