Who Will Be The Lead?: Everything We Know About Bridgerton Season 4

After years of waiting, we've finally gobbled up Season 3 of Bridgerton in one sitting (well, two), where we watched Colin Bridgerton on his knees, begging and grovelling for the love of Penelope Featherington.

While we'll take any excuse to watch Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton stare into each other's eyes, the decision to move Polin's story to third in the TV show, rather than its place in the book as the fourth, is a bold move. This has sent Bridgerton fans into a frenzy, analysing every word and every move the cast makes in the hope of discovering which couple Season 4 will be focusing on. Is it our boy Benny, who we're dying to see get the infamous Bridgerton glow-up (as if it were possible for Luke Thompson to get even more gorgeous)? Perhaps it could be the whipsmart Eloise, who fans are begging to see finally fall in love. Or maybe it's Francesca, who we were thrown a spanner with in the last few minutes of Season 3. Ahead, here's everything we know about Bridgerton Season 4, featuring exclusive insights from Bridgerton's showrunner, Jess Brownell.

We're sleuthing. We're reading. We're investigating. But at this stage, all lips in the Ton are very, very tightly sealed and we have no concrete answers. However, at a recent red carpet event for the premiere of Season 3, Refinery29 spoke to the new Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell to try and find out who will be taking over in Season 4. Understandably, Brownell was very tight-lipped — but did give some interesting information that we'll no doubt be analysing for months to come."I can tell you that I know who it's gonna be," Brownell laughs. "We are in the middle of writing it right now."While we're not certain about who will be the lead in Season 4, there are some clues from the show that give us a hint as to who we think might be following in the next season. While the finale purposefully made it vague as to whether Benedict, Eloise, or Francesca would be the lead in Season 4, we're leaning towards one character in particular.

Over in the Refinery29 office, our bets are all on Benedict, with all signs pointing to Luke Thompson as the next lead, as he falls in love in a Cinderella-inspired story. In Season 3, we really saw Benedict explore his sexuality, coming to terms with the fact that he was possibly bisexual or pansexual. Additionally, readers of the book will know that he meets his love 'Sophie' at a masquerade ball, something that was hinted at in the final episode which was meant to take place in the next year. While we're firmly of the belief that Bridgerton could gender-bend yet another love interest and that 'Sophie' might be a 'Stephen', it's clear that there's not many spaces for Benedict to explore from a side-plot perspective, making him the most likely contender for next season's lead in our opinion.

There have also been plenty of theories that Francesca (Hannah Dodd) will be the lead of Season 4. In the final episodes, Francesca got married to her new darling, John Stirling. However, in the last few moments, we finally got a glimpse of Michael... ahem, Michaela Stirling, with Francesca already sent into a tizzy at their first meeting. Readers of the book will know that this is quite a crucial moment for Francesca's love story. However, given that there's much more left to uncover here, we can't see the Bridgerton gods rushing this one and doing it next season. We're betting that Francesca's story will be told in the next few seasons, but not in Season 4 as it feels too soon.

Similarly, when it comes to fan favourite Eloise, we think that we might have to wait a little longer before we get to see her love story. In a Refinery29 interview with Bridgerton's showrunner, we asked if Penelope and Colin's marriage was the catalyst to Eloise finding love — or her own series, and she hinted that we might need to wait a little longer."It's the catalyst for maturity and some growth in Eloise," Brownell said. "Eloise has a bit to learn about listening and this season, by pushing her out of her comfort zone and out of her box, she's going to be forced to see things from other people's perspectives."While we don't have concrete answers yet, you can bet that we'll be updating this piece with all the information we can find as soon as we have it.

Thanks to strikes and pandemics, fans had to wait over two years after Kanthony to see Polin's story unfold. Two! Years!In an interview with Refinery29 in May, Jess Brownell shared that they haven't started filming for Season 4. In fact, they're still writing it!"We actually don't know when it's going to drop," Brownell said. "We're still making sure that we write the best possible script that we can before we start production." "But we're really thrilled with what we've been working on," she continued. "So hold out hope!"In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June, Brownell said they're running on a "two-year pace", but that they will speed it up. So unfortunately, it looks like we won't get Season 4 on our screens until 2026. Cue the violins.

With Brownell shaking up the order of the Bridgerton love stories, fans have been left wondering if there are any more shake-ups coming our way in future seasons."I am really not trying to shake things up too much," Brownell shares. "I really believe in the vision of the show." Brownell explains that if there are departures from the books, it's in service of the story. "I really want to serve the stories and the books the best way possible," she says. A major revelation in Season 3 is the gender swap of the book's Michael Stirling, Francesca's love interest, to Michaela Stirling. Francesca is queer? Okay, we love it! It shows that while Netflix's Bridgerton will stay true to the books overall, we should also expect some surprises, more queer characters, and some much-needed updates to the books.

While we don't have concrete details yet, there are a few characters that we can expect on our screens in Season 4 — and a few that may not be present. Like Season 3, we likely won't see Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) or Simon (Regé-Jean Page), with Jess Brownell confirming to Refinery29 that the Duke would not be recast in Page's departure. "There's no recasting happening," Brownell told us. "Regé-Jean Page is forever our Simon."Similarly, at the end of Season 3, there were hints that we would no longer be seeing Kanthony on our screens (at least for a little while) with Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) agreeing that they would move to India for a while to have their child. It also comes as the actors are taking on extra projects, so if they are present in the future, expect it to likely just be for short cameos. In good news for Polin fans, though, Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton will be reprising their role in Season 4. “They’ve told us we’re back for season four, which is super lovely," Coughlan told The Wrap. "It’ll be exciting. We’ll pop back and have some fun for sure.”

A trailer? In these trying times? Sadly, no. Given that the series is still being written, we'll unfortunately need to wait a long, long time for the Season 4 trailer. Don't worry, you can rewatch Bridgerton for the tenth time while you wait.