Bridgerton Season 3 Gave A Shoutout To Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Is there a Marvel universe of period pieces?
Bridgerton knows their audience. The romance-filled Netflix period piece makes no apologies for adopting classic — sometimes cheesy — portrayals of true love. In doing so, the series has made a habit of calling back to other Regency era book-to-screen adaptations, including the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice. In the show’s third season, Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington’s love story calls back to one particularly poignant moment from the movie portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s romance.
During their wedding brunch in Episode 7, Colin and Penelope decide to dance. In the middle of their sweet moment, the camera pans to show that everyone else in the room has disappeared. Seconds later, everyone is back in the room.
As period piece fans know all too well, this same exact scenario happens in the Pride & Prejudice movie when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy dance together for the first time. In both scenes, this moment gives the audience insight into what the couple is feeling at the time — as if they are the only two people in the room.
Fans quickly compared the two scenes. On X, formerly called Twitter, one viewer wrote, “the Pride & Prejudice reference during the wedding dance is so beautiful and important to me.” Another tweeted, “WHEN THEY PULLED THE PRIDE & PREJUDICE MOMENT I SCREAMED.”
This wasn’t the first time Bridgerton referenced Pride & Prejudice. Season 2’s enemies-to-lovers plot is essentially a steamier version of the Austen novel, and it has plenty of shoutouts to the screen adaptations, too.
Whether it’s Kate Sharma eavesdropping on Anthony Bridgerton or Anthony hopping out of the water with his shirt soaking wet, there were plenty of Pride & Prejudice-coded moments. (All Depression Barbies know the moment when Colin Firth walks out of the lake with his shirt sticking to his skin by heart.)
Lest we forget all the ways Season 2 focused on Kate and Anthony’s hands — whether they were reaching for each other or casually touching. It’s another way the show references Pride & Prejudice’s most butterfly-inducing scene of all time: when Darcy helped Elizabeth into the carriage and flexed his hand after.
Bridgerton has discovered the key for a successful period romance: a callback to the OG romance writer, Austen herself.
