Bridgerton Season 4 Is in Production + 5 Details About the Fairy Tale-Inspired Romance
On the very little known about Bridgerton Season 4 (Benedict & Sophie's story!) and why even that is worth celebrating
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Who could’ve known that writing about the long yet rewarding road to Benedict Bridgerton’s season and Yerin Ha’s perfect casting as Sophie Baek would lead to the announcement that Bridgerton Season 4 is in production? Okay, it’s unlikely that the two are connected, but the timing is wild, and the joy is so very real.
Shondaland and Netflix commemorated the start of production for Bridgerton Season 4 by releasing new details through Tudum and an interview with Thompson and Ha by Valentina Valentini. Paramount among the new details were the first photos of Thompson and Ha—not in character but together. Until Monday, Thompson teased Benedict’s season in a promo (presumably) recorded ahead of the Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 premiere in London. On the other hand, Ha confirmed her casting as Sophie Baek, the Lady in Silver, in a short teaser.
Now, everything is happening quickly—well, not too quickly. Showrunner Jess Brownell told The Hollywood Reporter that Bridgerton Season 4 will likely keep with the show’s usual pace. “We are working to try and put the seasons out more quickly, but they do take eight months to film and then they have to be edited, and then they have to be dubbed into every language. And the writing takes a very long time as well, so we’re kind of on a two-year pace, we’re trying to speed up, but somewhere in that range,” Brownell said. Still, there’s much to celebrate about Benedict and Sophie’s season.
As a reader and writer who loves this show and romance and TV writing in general, it’s energizing to hear Brownell talk about Season 4 like this:
“I’m really excited about what we’re writing. We’re toward the end with the writers room season, with the scripts. And I feel like it’s some of my best work and my writers room’s best work. We’ve just really gelled our collaboration, and we’re firing on all cylinders, so I can’t wait for fans to see what we have.” - via The Hollywood Reporter
Of course, there is plenty of time before anyone will see that writing on the screen outside of those involved with Bridgerton’s production. But even those people, like Luke Thompson, are excited about what they see on the page:
“The scripts that Jess and her team have come up with are dynamite. They’re really, really, really exciting. The storyline is a bit of a twist on ‘Cinderella.’ You remember being told those stories as a child — the magic and the romance of them. It’s really exciting to have that weaved into the world that we know of Bridgerton … It’s such a great story, but it’s also, I hope, really relatable.” - via Tudum
That’s right! Bridgerton Season 4 is keeping the fairy tale element from Julia Quinn’s book An Offer from a Gentleman — a Cinderella retelling with Benedict and Sophie at the center of an interclass romance.
In the 2001 novel, the second-born Bridgerton son rediscovers his passion for art while falling for a woman he meets at a masquerade ball but doesn’t meet again for two years. Little does Benedict know, she is Sophie Beckett, the illegitimate child of an Earl. In Bridgerton Season 4, Benedict questions his “loath to settle down” after meeting an “enthralling woman” at Violet Bridgerton’s masquerade ball. He only knows her as the Lady in Silver, but Benedict’s love interest is “actually Sophie [Baek], a resourceful maid with her own secrets and dreams.”
It’s still unclear how much of An Offer from a Gentleman will make it to Season 4. With production only beginning, a lot can change for Benedict and Sophie’s on-screen romance. Understandably, some things will change; nothing is really a 1:1 translation from page to screen. Even so, it’s exciting to know that their fairy-tale romance remains intact. Thompson teased what that could look like on Bridgerton:
“I think the main thing we can expect is a really nice mix of fairy tale and reality. We’ve got this fairy-tale love story, yes, but it’s also got the Bridgerton element of trying to tether [that story] to some sort of reality as well. So, we’ll see how that pans out!” - via Shondaland
Ha added to Thompson’s previous answer by saying there’s an “emotional tug of war” between Sophie and Benedict because of the tension “between what their hearts desire and what society desires for them.” For Tudum, Ha expanded on what those obstacles look like for Sophie: “Whether it’s this battle around social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict.” Those external and internal conflicts are reminiscent of Cinderella, and Bridgerton can bring a grounded take to them.
Since Disney’s Cinderella in 1950, there have been several adaptations and reimaginings of the classic fairy tale — Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 1997, 1998’s Ever After, 2004’s A Cinderella Story and Ella Enchanted, and 2015’s live-action Cinderella to name a few. Now (or two years from now), Benedict and Sophie’s Regency-era love story will join the ever-growing list.
But if Bridgerton has its Cinderella in Sophie Baek and Prince Charming in Benedict Bridgerton, what about Sophie’s stepmother and step sisters?
As Netflix shared, Katie Leung will play the “twice-married and twice-widowed” Lady Araminta Gun. With two daughters debuting on the marriage mart in the same season, Araminta faces the pressure of securing marriages for her daughters. Described as “fabulous, discerning, and blunt, Araminta does not respond well when anything — or anyone — threatens her standing in society.”
Michelle Mao joins the series as the “beautiful, vain, and eager to please her mother” Rosamund Li. Not only is the eldest daughter Araminta’s “most prized possession,” but Rosamund is also “determined to get what she wants.” Unsurprisingly, as he is the only adult and unmarried Bridgerton brother, Rosamund has her sights set on Benedict. Isabella Wei will portray Bridgerton’s Posy Li, the “younger, kinder sister” who doesn’t always get the spotlight from her mother. It’s more likely that Posy’s “chatty, overly friendly demeanor has her putting her foot in her mouth.”
These character descriptions say so much with so little — even for those who have read An Offer from a Gentleman backward and forward multiple times. It’s also a relief to see Posy joining the series after Bridgerton included Penelope, Philippa, and Prudence but not Felicity, the youngest Featherington sister.
There are other bits from the book already confirmed for Bridgerton Season 4, like the masquerade ball and the beloved lake scene at Benedict’s cottage.
As someone who has written about Benedict’s relationship with dance so far, I can easily anticipate how it will evolve because of Sophie and this ball. Ha told Tudum, “The dancing is like an extension of their [Benedict and Sophie’s] emotions, and a way for them to connect.” Without spoiling too much for those who want to read the book, Benedict and Sophie’s masked dance changes everything. From what little Netflix and Shondaland have shared, it sounds like that may stay the same.
The masquerade ball is such a unique set piece that is specific to the upcoming season, similar to Benedict’s cottage. Luke Thompson has been alluding to and openly discussing the lake scene in An Offer from a Gentleman for years, and it’s starting to sound like it may finally become a reality on Bridgerton Season 4.
Thompson mentioned the scene — and Sophie by name — in an interview with The Telegraph in 2021. In June 2024, Thompson talked with Harper’s Bazaar about how Julia Quinn’s writing makes it so “there are two or three cornerstone moments” in each book. When pressed on which one he’d like to see adapted, Thompson replied, “I like jumping in a lake. I hope I get to jump in a lake. That’d be fun.” Just this month, Thompson reiterated his desire for that scene to be in the show to Tudum": “I’ve said it before, but I do love a wild swim. Stick me in a lake if you can.”
The world around Benedict may look distinctly different if/when he dives in that lake because Bridgerton Season 4 is also switching up the season with its new social season. During an interview with The Los Angeles Times in June 2024, showrunner Jess Brownell said the show, which usually lives “in this perpetual spring,” is “playing around with the idea of fall…for the first time.” Brownell teased:
“Some of that is about story and some of it is, honestly, just for practical reasons because we’re shooting in the fall. It’s still going to be just as lush and colorful, but just more in those warm fall colors instead of the pastels. There will still be some pastels, so it won’t look like a totally different show. I’ll give you that.”
While there is a long way to go before Bridgerton reveals what fall looks like in — and out of — the ton, Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha already have the best fall aesthetic in their first joint photoshoot with Gavin Bond for Netflix. Moreover, their chemistry shines through in it and every written interview so far. So, even though it may be another two years of piecing together clues from Netflix and Shondaland, it’s already proving worthwhile. The magical details of Benedict and Sophie’s realistic fairy tale on Bridgerton are coming together nicely.
Until next time,
💌 Shelby