Television

'Bridgerton' Season 3 And 4 Ordered By Netflix, Which Knows A Cultural Phenomenon When It Sees One

Bridgerton season 3
By Ben Pearson

Bridgerton is coming back for seasons 3 and 4.

Bela Bejaria, Netflix's vice president of global TV, said in a press release that the company is "planning to be in the Bridgerton business for a long time to come," which should not be surprising since the first season of the sexy Regency romance reportedly became the streamer's biggest original series ever.

Netflix has historically been slow to hand out early renewals this far in advance – in fact, many of its original series don't make it to a fourth season at all. But executives at the company are clearly seeing dollar signs (or, rather, potential subscriber increases), and with season 2 already in production, they're playing the long game with this show.

Bridgerton Season 3 and 4 Officially On the Way

As you know, Netflix does not release particularly useful viewership numbers for any of its shows or movies, so its claim that Bridgerton was its biggest series ever only means that, as far as the public knows, 82 million households chose to watch two minutes of a single episode in the first ten days of the show's release. That's all we have to go on...which, again, is not exactly the type of transparency we'd like. But it's clear from the show's vocal fan community that Bridgerton actually is very popular: there was a very loud response, for example, when it was recently confirmed that actor Regé-Jean Page, who played the Duke of Hastings in season 1, will not be returning in the second season.

"This two-season pickup is a strong vote of confidence in our work, and I feel incredibly grateful to have partners as collaborative and creative as Netflix," said Shonda Rhimes, who executive produces the show alongside Betsy Beers and creator/showrunner Chris Van Dusen. "Betsy and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue bringing the world of Bridgerton to a worldwide audience."

As originally planned, each season of Bridgerton will tell a new romance story based on author Julia Quinn's novels, centering on a different member of the wealthy Bridgerton family. Season 2 will follow the eldest sibling, Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), who meets the smart, headstrong, fan-favorite character Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). "Anthony is going to have a love interest next season, and I think it's going to be as sweeping and moving and as beautiful as viewers of the first season have come to expect from the show," Van Dusen previously said.

Season 2 of Bridgerton is being filmed right now.

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