The third season of Netflix’s Bridgerton will jump ahead and focus on the love story between Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington. While Bridgerton’s first two seasons focused on Julia Quinn’s first two novels, Variety reports that Coughlan confirmed during Sunday’s FYSEE panel that the fourth book will be the focus of the forthcoming season. The story of the third book, which revolves around Benedict Bridgerton’s love life, will most likely be postponed until a later season.
Season 4 will follow Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton as their friendship blossoms into something more while she juggles her double life as Lady Whistledown. Coughlan revealed, “Like Lady Whistledown, I have been keeping a secret for quite some time and I can confirm to you all that season 3 is Colin and Penelope’s love story. I have kept that secret since two weeks into season 2. This is the first time I am saying it here.”
Chris Van Dusen previously hinted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that the third season may diverge from Julia Quinn’s novels and focus on another Bridgerton sibling. “I can’t mention or talk about anything after this season, (but) it was always my goal to focus on a different Bridgerton sibling every season and it’s no secret there are eight Bridgerton siblings,” Van Dusen said. He continued, “In success we will be on as long as Netflix will have us but I would love to focus on every single one of those eight Bridgerton siblings and tell romance stories for all of them.”
Lady Whistedown’s identity was revealed at the end of Season 1 by the creators of the show. However, in the books, this does not happen until the fourth book, which focuses on Penelope. Hannah Dodd will play Francesca Bridgerton in Season 3, succeeding Ruby Stokes, who has moved on to star in another Netflix series, Lockwood & Co. The new season’s casting is well begun. Bridgerton cast members Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran, series creator and executive producer Chris Van Dusen, costume designer Sophie Canale, and composer Kris Bowers were present on the panel. Yvette Nicole Brown, an actress and host, served as the moderator.