Is Bridgerton Skipping Benedict's Love Story? The Showrunner Weighed In
Don't give up hope on him just yet.
Bridgerton Season 1 was remarkable in how faithfully it stuck to the overall main story from the book it’s based on, even if the ensemble it added was a bit different. But, like many shows that adapt popular source material, the longer Bridgerton goes on, the further from the book it gets. Season 2 changed Anthony and Kate’s romance from Book 2 into a complicated love triangle. Now, Season 3 will bypass Book 3 (Benedict’s love story) and go directly to Colin and Penelope’s tale from Book 4. But does this mean Bridgerton will skip Benedict’s story altogether?
The decision to push up Colin and Penelope was less about snubbing Benedict and more about striking while the iron is hot. “I really feel like it’s Colin and Penelope’s time,” Bridgerton’s new showrunner Jess Brownell (who is taking over from Chris Van Dusen) told Variety. “Because we’ve been watching both of these actors on our screens since Season 1, we’ve already invested in them a little bit. We know who they are as people. I feel like, especially in the last season, there are these moments of tension between them where it’s like, Colin walks up to the line of almost realizing that Penelope has feelings for him but doesn’t quite get there. Instead of treading water on that dynamic, we wanted to push it into their season. It really felt like the perfect moment to tee it up.”
With Bridgerton being an ensemble-heavy show, some fans are guessing Benedict’s Book 3 plot will become a secondary story in Season 3, while Colin and Pen take the spotlight. As those who have read An Offer From A Gentleman know, Benedict’s story isn’t narratively compact as some of the others. It spans several years, with Part 1 — in which he meets his true love, Sophie — occurring a year after Anthony and Kate’s marriage. Sophie then runs away before Benedict can learn her real identity. Three years pass before Benedict finds her again, and he’s not in London when he does. The majority of Part 2 — in which Benedict and Sophie fall in love — is spent in the countryside, far away from the other Bridgerton siblings. In short, this is not a story that exactly favors Bridgerton’s ensemble format. Having Benedict fall in love off-screen or as a subplot to Season 3’s main story in London would fit the show’s structure far better than giving Benedict his own season.
But Brownell recently hinted this may not necessarily be how things shake out. “Shonda Rhimes has said publicly before that she wants to have eight seasons,” she told Variety. “We hope to get to tell every sibling’s love story, and they will always be in each season.”
Eight seasons; eight siblings — it certainly sounds like each Bridgerton kid will get their own season dedicated to them, including Benedict.
Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Netflix. Season 3 is expected to film in the summer of 2022, with a release date estimated for late 2023.
