“They’re All in Different Stages”: Shondland Exec. Teases a New Set of Obstacles for ‘Bridgerton’ Season 4
Dearest Gentle Reader, more information about the fourth season of the Netflix Regency-era drama Bridgerton continues to trickle out. In a recent interview, Shondaland executive Betsy Beers spoke with Deadline about some of the things to expect. As we know, production is currently underway and Season 4 will star Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha as our leading lad and lady, Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek. Beers, while not revealing too much, did get an insight into the character development awaiting the Bridgerton clan in Season 4.
“Every season is its own story,” Beers explains. “Every season has got Bridgerton tones but they’re all different.” As for Season 4 specifically, Beers says, “what is wonderful about this [season] is it’s an entirely different set of obstacles than we’ve seen before and everybody in the Bridgerton family right now is in there. They’re all in different stages,” she added. All three main couples from the first three seasons will now have at least one child by the time Season 4 takes place. Daphne and Simon have Auggie, Kate and Anthony have, if keeping to book canon, their son Edmund, and Penelope and Colin also have a son. Francesca and her husband John will likely be off in Scotland for at least part of Season 4. This as the two youngest children of the Bridgerton family, Gregory and Hyacinth, continue towards an age where they can be properly out within society.
What Could Those “Obstacles” Be in Bridgerton Season 4?
Bridgerton Season 4 is based off Julia Quinn’s third book in the Bridgerton book series, An Offer From a Gentleman. Sophie becomes a maid for the Bridgerton family after a series of events that leads her to nurse Benedict back to health. Sophie is the illegitimate child of the late Earl of Penwood, originally raised as his ward to legitimize her status. After the Earl dies, Sophie is instead made a maid by his widow, her step-mother Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung). Sophie is eventually thrown out, and so begins her journey that leads us to her and Benedict.
Yerin Ha told RUSSH that Sophie “is always reminded of her place and doesn’t dream of more than her station as a maid.” Despite this, she and Benedict do end up together, complicating things in a society that is all about status and birthright. The Bridgertons sit in the tier of Viscount in the British peerage system. While Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) has been the only one to marry above her station by marrying the Duke of Hastings, Benedict wishing to marry someone with no legitimate ties to social nobility will put the family in a serious societal pickle. Fortunately, love wins out with the Bridgerton family and no one within the clan really cares what Sophie’s station was, but there will still be the whispers and gossip, even with the identity of Lady Whistledown revealed last season to be Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington (now Bridgerton).
