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Bridgerton Season 3 will finally deliver on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington’s (Nicola Coughlan) delicious friends-to-lovers storyline that has been brewing in the background since the start of the show. Now that fans have finally gotten a glimpse of what to expect from the lovebirds, some may be wondering which Bridgerton is next in line for their own happily ever after in Bridgerton Season 4.
Luckily for us, showrunner Jess Brownell gave some major hints ahead of the Season 3 premiere.
“I won’t give you anything, but I do think that there are some clues at the end of Season 3 of where we’re headed,” Brownell told TV Insider.
She added, “I leave that to fans to pick apart, but I think we’re tipping our hand just a little bit.”
That means Season 3 Part 2 will likely reveal, or at least tease, which direction the show will be heading in next.
Shonda Rhimes‘ adaptation of Julia Quinn’s bestselling romance series explores the Bridgerton family in a different order than the book series does. While the first book also began with Daphne and the Duke, the later installments focused on each of the Bridgerton siblings in alphabetical order.
Season 2 focused on Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma’s (Simone Ashley) searing enemies-to-lovers storyline, Season 3 skipped right over Benedict Bridgerton to instead focus on Colin.
There is a chance that Bridgerton Season 4 will focus on Benedict. Luke Thompson‘s performance as the artistic rake has been delightful to watch, and it appears that fans are eager to see him finally settle down.
Brownell said that she and Rhimes made the decision to skip Benedict’s storyline together.
“I went off and reread all the books and came back to her. Season 2 hadn’t wrapped yet, so there was still time to influence the ending of Season 2 to set it up properly for Season 3,” she told Vanity Fair. “And we both just felt strongly that Colin and Penelope, we know these characters really well. We’ve watched this dynamic where Colin doesn’t quite get it that Penelope likes him, and we felt like we didn’t want that to grow stale, so it felt like it was time to go in another direction with them.”
She also spoke a bit on Francesca’s storyline this season, praising actress Hannah Dodd for the way she brought the role back to life after Ruby Stokes left in Season 2 for another opportunity.
According to Brownell, Bridgerton fans should also expect Francesca to get her own shot at love as she enters the marriage mart.
“She’s much more reserved, much more taciturn. But she also has this really rich inner life and a strong point of view, which is challenging to Violet when Francesca debuts this year on the marriage mart,” she said. “Violet knows very well how to shepherd her other children who are very vocal about what their feelings are, but because Francesca is more of an enigma, it creates a real hurdle for Violet.”
For now, Bridgerton Season 3 will surely quell fans over until there’s more news about what’s to come.
Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 premieres on Netflix May 16. Part 2 premieres June 13.
