'Bridgerton' Is Taking the Long Road to Benedict + Sophie, But It's Worth It
On the road to Bridgerton Season 4, Yerin Ha being perfectly cast as Sophie, and the ever-growing appreciation for the romance genre
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I had just sat down at my desk on a random Wednesday to start work for the day. I opened all my usual tabs, but something surprised me when I went to Twitter. Shondaland and Netflix confirmed that An Offer From a Gentleman’s Sophie Beckett would come to life as Sophie Baek, portrayed by Yerin Ha, in Bridgerton Season 4. Fairy tales were becoming a reality before my eyes!
To properly frame my excitement, I have to work backward.
I never expected to like Bridgerton despite Shonda Rhimes producing the show under her production company, Shondaland. It’s actually laughable to think about because I watch every show Shonda Rhimes plays any part in bringing to screen. I’ve taken her MasterClass a few times now. I always soak up every writing tip and trick she offers. Still, the romance series wasn’t for me — or so I thought.
My friends, who often know me better than I know myself, kept lovingly nudging me towards Julia Quinn’s books, which the Netflix series is inspired by. I kept politely turning them down. I recently graduated college with an English degree that I’m lucky to have, but it forever changed my relationship with reading — for better and worse. So, that’s what I told them. Thanks, but I’m not reading much right now. Great, I’ll keep it in mind when I get out of this reading slump. And so on.
Then, the pandemic happened, and I was working in an in-person job with significant bouts of downtime that I wanted to stay busy during. Doomscrolling wasn’t an option, so I ordered a copy of The Duke & I by Julia Quinn.
I sped through that book. It was the first time in a long time that I read that fast. (I suggest looking into the trigger warnings before reading it, though.) In the lulls at work, I’d hop into Quinn’s Regency era, and I could feel my brain relax. I also raced through the second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me.
I was having a blast, and, once again, my friends were right. (They usually are!)
I can’t quite remember if I read the book and then watched the first season or vice versa. I just know they happened very, very close together, and the world of Bridgerton enthralled me. From the first season, which dropped on December 25, 2020, I had favorite members of the Bridgerton family — Eloise and Benedict.
I also came to really, really love Kate Sheffield (Sharma, now Viscountess Bridgerton in the show) in Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me. I was eager to see her and Anthony’s enemies-to-lovers story play out on Bridgerton, and it did in March 2022. By then, I had also read Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Beckett’s interclass romance with a Cinderella twist in Quinn’s An Offer From a Gentleman. I was ecstatic to see it play out next on the romance series — except it didn’t.
If you know me, you are likely painfully aware of this timeline because I explain it to everyone who will listen — and those who don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to finally hear positive movement about Benedict’s season.
Bridgerton’s first season debuted in 2020, the second season rolled out in 2022, and two months later, Nicola Coughlan revealed that the third season would be about Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington’s friends-to-lovers romance. Bridgerton would leap over Benedict’s story to adapt Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton instead. The show’s fourth season premiered in May 2024.
Netflix renewed the series for Season 2 in January 2021, and a third and fourth season renewal came in April 2021. So, no matter what, Bridgerton fans were confident that half of the Bridgerton siblings would have their romances adapted.
However, with the creative decision to diverge from the books’ order, it wasn’t certain who would be next. That confusion only grew when Bridgerton’s two-part (The first of its kind) third season heavily featured Hannah Dodd’s turn as Francesca Bridgerton. It showed the early days of Francesca’s relationship with Victor Alli’s John Stirling, which is critical before bringing any of Quinn’s When He Was Wicked to screen. By the Season 3 finale in June 2024, it seemed more possible than ever that Francesca’s book would be next. After all, it introduced Masali Baduza as Michaela Stirling, teeing up Francesca’s second great love story.
But in that same episode, Eloise told Benedict that their mother, Violet Bridgerton, would throw a masquerade ball, and he swore he would attend. That critical detail from the source material was the spark fans needed to believe some version of An Offer From a Gentleman was next. Theories swirled until Netflix and Shondaland confirmed Luke Thompson’s Benedict as the next lead in July 2024.
All of this — seasons of record-breaking ratings — leads me back to Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek, which Netflix and Shondaland announced in September 2024.
It doesn’t even feel adequate enough to say this has been a long time coming. I have written over a handful of editorials and features about Bridgerton, Benedict, and the idea of Sophie since the show debuted. I was thrilled to finally write about more than “If Benedict is next, this could happen” or “If the show introduces Sophie, this is how it could happen.” The era of speculation was over!
There’s still a long wait until Bridgerton’s likely two-part fourth season, but the excitement feels different now. Sophie Baek is more than a wish upon a star.
She’s a character who will make it to the small screen — eventually. Though the road is still long, it is so worth it because Yerin Ha gets Sophie.
“What drew me to Sophie was that she immediately has obstacles — something that she constantly has to overcome. Whether it’s this battle around social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict,” Ha told Netflix’s Tudum. “There’s this theme with masks that was running throughout all of my audition scenes. When does Sophie put on this mask to cover her emotions? Or vice versa, when does she take it off and when does she soften up? Playing with those [questions] is just really fun,” she added.
Other meaningful details, like Sophie being given a Korean surname out of respect for Ha’s culture, have helped Sophie come to life long before she ever appears on screen. Like Kate and Edwina Sheffield becoming Kate and Edwina Sharma upon Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran’s casting, Sophie Beckett is now Sophie Baek. Ha spoke about the significance of Sophie’s name with Tudum:
“A name is the first bit of identity that you share with the world, and that’s why changing a name can be so powerful. To make Sophie’s name fit someone who looks like me is really empowering. All credit to Jess Brownell, our showrunner. It’s a really nice way for me to feel like the role is fit for me, rather than me having to fit a certain mold. It’s amazing what it can do just in a psychological sense. So it means a lot that Jess did that for me.”
There is still so much to learn about Sophie Baek, and I can’t wait to watch Benedict learn all about her as they fall in love. Also, imagine the extravagance Bridgerton will bring to a masquerade ball after the butterflies (“Varley, the bugs!”) in Season 3. I digress — it’s surreal to know this much after wondering for so long.
Bridgerton is one of my comfort shows. I rewatch it constantly; I throw it on in the background while I write. It’s on right now — Anthony and Kate are pulling each other out of the mud at Aubrey Hall as I type this. I like the escapism it offers. It helps me want to believe in grand love stories like Benedict and Sophie’s.
I love that I’m genuinely buzzing to see Benedict and Sophie’s love story on screen because the Bridgerton books and show have made me — and others — more confident in my love of romance. “Society is primed to view anything produced by women for women as lesser, and there’s always been an assumption that romance is frivolous, poorly written, and holds little appeal for men. Bridgerton’s success is proving all those assumptions false,” historical romance author Tessa Dare told CNN in 2021.
To drive all of this home, there’s no better quote to leave you with than one from Luke Thomspon himself. In April, during an interview with The Guardian to promote his RSC debut as Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Thompson said this:
“Of course. Julia Quinn’s books are romance novels, so it would be a betrayal not to explore that [The series being sexy]. It’s a genre with its own codes. That’s what’s so delicious about the show. Sometimes it’s dismissed as unserious, but there may be some misogyny in that. People love romance. There’s not enough of it around.”
Until next time,
💌 Shelby