‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 Will Focus on Benedict Bridgerton’s Romance with ‘Lady in Silver’ Sophie
It’s official: Season 4 of Netflix’s “Bridgerton” will focus on the love life of bachelor Benedict Bridgerton.
Benedict, played by Luke Thompson, has been on the back burner in recent seasons but will now be the next Bridgerton sibling to find his soul mate. The season will follow the events of Julia Quinn’s third “Bridgerton” novel, “An Offer From a Gentleman,” which follows Benedict’s quest to find a “lady in silver” he meets at a masquerade ball, who turns out to be a lowly woman named Sophie Beckett.
In the “Bridgerton” Season 4 trailer that accompanied the announcement, Netflix confirmed that Benedict’s love interest is still the same woman. “The fourth season of ‘Bridgerton’ focuses on free-spirited middle son Benedict (Luke Thompson),” the synopsis reads. “Although both his brother and younger brother are happily married, Benedict is reluctant to settle down — until he meets a charming Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.”
When Variety spoke with new “Bridgerton” showrunner Jess Brownell about the Season 3 finale in June, she teased Benedict Bridgerton as the lead in Season 4 and shared her decision to reveal his pansexuality in Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) season — based on the fourth “Bridgerton” book, “Romancing Mister Bridgerton,” and swapping Benedict’s story in the TV series.
“I know that people out there have a feeling that Benedict might be gay,” Brownell said. “And personally, that makes sense. Not only is he open, but he seems like the type of person who doesn’t care about gender — someone who can be more fluid and pansexual. He’s really attracted to the spirit of someone. And so we felt like we should understand those parts in Season 1 and Season 2. That’s what we’re trying to do with his storyline.”
At the end of Season 3 of “Bridgerton,” Benedict is in a threesome with his new lover Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New) and her friend Paul (Lucas Aurelio), after Tilley encourages him to explore. When Tilley decides she wants to go back to their monogamous phase and not “share” him, Benedict gently ends the relationship, not ready to settle down after discovering a new part of himself.
“Benedict has always been a little bit lost — or free, depending on how you want to look at it. But now he’s trying to find something more solid within himself,” Thompson told Netflix’s Tudum, which broke the news about the “Bridgerton” Season 4 lead on Tuesday.
Thompson joins the cast after three seasons on “Bridgerton” as the supporting role of Benedict, following previous seasons of the Shonda Rhimes period romance that focused on on-screen siblings and their partners: Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), and Colin and Penelope.
The remaining “Bridgerton” siblings who have yet to be cast as leads: Eloise (Claudia Jessie), Francesca (Hannah Dodd), Gregory (Will Tilston) and Hyacinth (Florence Hunt). While Rhimes and Brownell plan to tell the entire story over eight books and have laid the groundwork for upcoming storylines for Eloise and Francesca, Netflix has only officially renewed the show through Season 4.
