Meet the Bridgerton Season 3 Cast: New Characters, Returning Favorites, and More

Welcome back to the world, dear readers!

Both parts of Bridgerton season 3 are now streaming. While previous seasons have introduced a new character for a particular member of the Bridgerton family to fall in love with, this season focuses on a long-standing love story: Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton.

Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) has had unrequited feelings for the third-eldest Bridgerton son, Colin (Luke Newton), since the show began. However, there’s an added twist: Penelope is Lady Whistledown, and only her former best friend, Eloise Bridgerton, knows.

Bridgerton Cast: Everything You Need to Know
This season features much of the same cast as the first two seasons—minus Phoebe Dynevor, who plays Daphne Bridgerton—and introduces a few new faces, including notable additions Daniel Francis as Marcus Anderson and Sam Phillips as Lord Debling.

Read on to get acquainted with the cast and characters of Bridgerton season 3.

Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington
It’s finally Coughlan’s time to shine as Penelope. Often referred to as a wallflower in the first two seasons, season 3 tells the story of Penelope’s growing confidence and blossoming love life.

In seasons 1 and 2, Penelope is Eloise’s companion, both of whom sympathize with her discomfort and indifference to the marriage market. While Eloise rolls her eyes at the prospect of marriage, Penelope is her shy friend, who agrees with her but secretly wants a love story of her own.

Throughout the series, Penelope remembers Eloise’s brother, Colin. She is deeply in love with him, even though he only sees her as a good friend. The two write to each other while he’s away on business, and he assures her that he values ​​her, but Penelope is heartbroken when she hears him say that he would never consider marrying her in season 2.

However, in season 3, Penelope is ready to come into her own — and finally catches Colin’s eye.

“I always look at the three seasons like this. I think season one is about passion, season two is about desire, and season three, I think it’s all about romance,” Coughlan told PEOPLE magazine in June 2023. “It’s so romantic.”

She added, “There are so many moments on set where we’re shooting something, and we come back, and everyone is clutching their chest and going, ‘Oh my God.’ That’s what love is.”

Coughlan has also previously starred in the Irish comedy Derry Girls as well as the BBC period drama Harlots.

Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton
Newton’s Colin has been at the heart of the Bridgerton saga from the start as the shy, eager traveler of the three Bridgerton brothers. However, season three is Colin’s time to shine as he finally feels ready for love.

In season 1, Colin falls for Marina Thompson and the two get engaged — until she reveals she’s pregnant with another man’s child. Colin is heartbroken and heads off on his travels, while Penelope is happy to see him single again.

Colin visits Marina in season 2 to find closure and finds himself ready to move on. He enters season 3 as a new man and finds that many high-society women only have eyes for him — but is met with anger from his best friend, Penelope.

When preparing to take on the male lead role in season 3, Newton told InStyle in April 2024 that he asked the male leads from the previous two seasons, Regé-Jean Page and Jonathan Bailey, for advice. Page told him to take a “big vacation before all the craziness starts.”

“[Page] grabbed me, gave me a big hug and said, ‘Are you ready, mate?’” Newton said.

“We talked all the time, and it was great to see how he acted on set when he knew I was next,” he said. “It was great to see someone do so well.”
Newton previously starred in Disney Channel’s The Lodge and BBC Two’s The Cut.

Claudia Jessie as Eloise
Claudia Jessie reprised her role as Bridgerton’s rebellious younger sister, Eloise, in season 3. In the first two seasons, Eloise made it clear that she wasn’t interested in finding love or getting married, but wanted to spend her time reading and thinking critically.
“She’s a modern character,” Jessie told The Guardian in April 2024. “We went to etiquette classes to learn how to bow and curtsy and all that stuff—and I was like, ‘Eloise unsubscribes from all that.’

See more in the next post.