Now that Penelope Featherington has found her happily ever after with her longtime crush Colin Bridgerton, viewers are already looking for hints as to who the next season of Bridgerton will follow. The Netflix adaptation has been following the timeline of events chronologically as they happen in the novels by Julia Quinn — though they’re not necessarily following the order of publication.
Now that Season 3 has wrapped, viewers are already looking for news of Season 4. So who will it follow?
Who does Season 4 of ‘Bridgerton’ follow?
The focal point of Season 4 has already been decided — but Julia isn’t spilling the details! In an interview with People before Season 3 aired, she confirmed that she knew who the next season would focus on.
“I can’t say a word, I’ll get in so much trouble,” she told the outlet. “I do know, but I can’t say yes.”
If the show decides to jump back to book three in the series, then Benedict Bridgerton’s love affair will be the focal point of next season. That said, others are placing their bets on Eloise as the focal point. But there’s one more Bridgerton sibling whose love story is already been set up.
Julia Quinn reveals that the showrunners are already talking about Francesca’s season.
The Season 3 finale of Bridgerton set the groundwork for the adaptation of When He Was Wicked, the title that follows Francesca’s story after her marriage to John Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin. In the novel series, Francesca eventually finds love with John’s cousin, Michael, following John’s early death.
At the end of the season, though, Francesca finds herself breathless at the sight of Michaela, not Michael.
It’s a change that adds a queer storyline to the show, while also building on the foundation the novels have already set in place. This has been a somewhat controversial change, making some fans of the books angry, but Julia stood by the decision in a post made on Facebook. In it, she reaffirmed that she felt confident in the show’s decision to change Michael’s gender and have Francesca fall in love with a woman, and also revealed her season is being discussed.
“I’m confident now that when Francesca has her Bridgerton season, it will be the most emotional and heart-wrenching story of the show, just like When He Was Wicked has always been the true tear-jerker of the Bridgerton book series,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “Honestly, it may pack even more of a punch, since John is getting a lot more time on the screen than he ever did on the page, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve all fallen a little bit in love with him.”
Though she didn’t unveil what role Francesca’s story will play in the upcoming season, it’s clear that her love story will be told in bits and pieces across the next few seasons. According to People, Julia said there are only “four [seasons] contracted, but Shonda [Rhimes] is saying eight, and she’s the boss.” If anyone knows how to hold an audience over many seasons of a television show, it’s Shonda!
