Bridgerton Season 3 Might Not Follow The Books, Teases Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes strongly suggests the already-ordered Bridgerton season 3 won’t follow the same order as Julia Quinn’s book series. This week marks the return of Netflix’s hit period romance Bridgerton, which debuts Friday and kicks off a brand new love story. With gossip columnist Lady Whistledown watching over the scandals of London society, the new season will find Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), the eldest Bridgerton, finally agreeing to settle down with a wife. He sets his sights on newcomer Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), but it’s her sister Kate (Simone Ashley) who might prove to be a better match. That’s provided Anthony and Kate can get over their immense dislike of each other.

Bridgerton season 2 is a noted departure from the first, which focused on the steamy romance between Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon, the Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page). Fans were stunned to realize Simon and Daphne would no longer be the focal point of the series, but that’s just keeping with Quinn’s books. Each novel explores the love story of another Bridgerton sibling, all the way through the youngest, Gregory. If Bridgerton the show keeps with Quinn’s books, then it’ll be second child Benedict (Luke Thompson) who is the star of season 3.

However, it sounds like that may not be the case. Speaking to ET ahead of the Bridgerton season 2 premiere, producer Rhimes confirmed the plan is still to give a season to every sibling, but that there might be some changes ahead. Rhimes said:

“There’s eight Bridgerton siblings, so we’re planning on following each one of the siblings’ romantic stories. We’re not necessarily going in order but we are going to be seeing each of the siblings and their stories.”

Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen merely agreed with Rhimes’ plan to focus on every sibling, which would mean the series needs to run for at least eight seasons. For now, Netflix has renewed it through season 4, though more seasons beyond that seem likely at this point. Still, on the off chance that Netflix doesn’t give all the Bridgertons a chance at love, the desire to switch up the original order could be to service some of the series’ much-hyped romances. Many are excited to see the connection between Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) grow, so perhaps Rhimes and Van Dusen are moving them up.

Unfortunately, it might not be clear for a while as to who will be the lead for Bridgerton season 3. Rhimes did confirm they’ve already begun working on it. However, to say anything about it now would be to give away a spoiler. Could season 2 provide a massive clue? That’s certainly a possibility. The original Bridgerton books are bursting with exciting love stories, and it will be interesting to see each one take to the small screen. Until season 3’s lucky sibling is announced, speculation may reign.

Bridgerton season 2 premieres Friday, March 25 on Netflix.

Source: ET

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is one of Screen Rant’s core news editors, as well as a feature and movie review writer. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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