The world was ablaze with gossip this morning when Luke Thompson's Benedict Bridgerton was announced as the lead for Bridgerton Bridge fourth season.
Netflix has revealed that the second Bridgerton child will be on the marriage market in the next episode, following the third season romance between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
According to the synopsis, season four “focuses on bohemian second-born Benedict. Although his older and younger brothers are both happily married, Benedict is reluctant to settle down.” However, when he meets a mysterious Lady in Silver at Violet Bridgerton's (Ruth Gemmell) masquerade ball, everything changes, and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Colin couldn't be more proud.
by Julia Quinn An offer from a gentleman — the third book in his novel series — will serve as the basis for Benedict's season as he pursues (spoiler alert!) Sophie Beckett. According to the book's description, she would never have dreamed of sneaking into the famous masquerade ball, since she has been relegated to the role of servant by her stepmother. There, in Benedict's arms, she feels like a queen, but she can only last until midnight.
“Since that magical night, a radiant silver vision has blinded Benedict to the attractions of anyone else—except perhaps this enticing, strangely familiar beauty in a maid's clothes whom he feels compelled to rescue from a most unpleasant situation,” the description continues. “He has vowed to find and marry his mysterious young lady, but this breathtaking maid makes him weak in his desire. Yet if she offers him her heart, will Benedict sacrifice his only chance at fairytale love?”
On September 11, Netflix announced that it had cast Yerin Ha as Sophie Beckett, who will be called Sophie Baek in the television adaptation of the novel.
“What attracted me to Sophie was that she’s been through obstacles, something that she’s constantly having to overcome,” Ha told Tudum. “Whether it’s this battle over social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict.”
THE Alone The actress, who is Korean and originally from Australia, explained that she felt even more connected to Sophie because showrunner Jess Brownell gave her character the Korean surname Baek, out of respect for her culture.
“A name is the first piece of identity you share with the world, and that’s why changing a name can be so powerful,” Ha said. “Making Sophie’s name fit someone who looks like me is really inspiring. All credit to Jess Brownell, our showrunner.”
She added: “It's a really nice way for me to feel like the role is right for me, rather than having to fit into a certain mold. It's amazing what it can do just in a psychological sense. So it means a lot that Jess has done that for me.”
While Benedict will be the focus of season four, the other siblings also have busy love lives. Colin and Penelope welcomed their first child; Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and John Stirling (Victor Alli) have jetted off to Scotland to start their new life together; Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony have sailed to India to welcome their first child; and Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Regé-Jean Page) have at least one child by now. Not to mention, Violet and Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis) have begun their potential courtship in season three.
The previous episode also saw Benedict explore his sexuality in a new way, when he got into a situation with Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New) and Paul (Lucas Aurelio). Showrunner Jess Brownell said The Hollywood Reporter that Benedict's relationship with Tilley helped him understand how he can be truly himself and still be an integral part of society.
In another conversation, Brownell explained to DAY that Benedict's sexual identity was not a fixed belief for him, noting that in today's world he might be considered pansexual, and this was something they had been talking about since first season.
“I think it's a character that would naturally be more about connection than gender,” she shared in a Bridgerton Bridge season three postmortem. “In a broader sense, I think the throuple for Benedict is about him learning to embrace his true self in the same way that Pen and Colin are embracing their true selves. Benedict has always been an unconventional character who lives a little bit outside of society in terms of his comfort.”
As for how Benedict’s storyline will develop in season four, Brownell teased that they will continue to give him room to grow and figure out how he wants to live in this world, reflecting in particular on a scene that deeply touched the second-born Bridgerton.
“There's a moment toward the end of the season where Benedict is talking to Tilley about how he doesn't want anything serious, and Tilley, in a very powerful way, is like, 'Okay, but it was really nice to want something for once,'” he said. “Benedict is someone who has had a lot of breadth in his life in terms of a million different experiences, but he's never really committed to anything. I think what he's starting to realize is that he also wants depth, and so Benedict reconciling breadth with depth is something that we're going to dive into pretty deeply in future seasons.”
While there is no news yet on when fans can expect Bridgerton Bridge season four, Brownell said DAY at the London premiere of season three, part two, that they will likely have to wait another two years before season four hits streaming.
“We're working to try to get the seasons out faster, but it takes eight months to shoot them and then they have to be edited and then dubbed into all the languages,” he said. “And the writing takes a long time, too, so we're more or less on a two-year pace, we're trying to speed it up, but somewhere in that range.”