Liam Daniel/Netflix
On the season finale, as Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) prepares to head off to Scotland with Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd), John Stirling (Victor Alli), and Michaela (Masali Baduza), she tells Benedict that she’ll only be gone until next year.
“Do you think Mama would ever let me miss her Masquerade Ball?” she says.
Benedict, still not ready to settle down, replies: “I will be there, hiding out behind a mask, avoiding eligible ladies like the plague.”
That not-so-subtle moment was a nod to Benedict’s novel “An Offer From a Gentleman,” which is part of Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” book series.
In the third, “Cinderella”-inspired book, Benedict meets a woman named Sophie Beckett at a masquerade ball. Unbeknownst to him, Sophie is a servant to a rude stepmother named Araminta Gunningworth. By the end of the book, they express their love for each other and get married.
Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan will reprise their roles as Colin and Penelope Bridgerton in season 4
Liam Daniel/Netflix
In an interview published by Town & Country in mid-May, showrunner Jess Brownell said that she was working on season four.
“We’ve broken out the whole season and are finalizing the scripts, and I’m super excited about where we’re headed,” she said.
Brownell also told Refinery29 that she didn’t have an anticipated release date yet for the new episodes.
“We’re still making sure that we write the best possible script that we can before we start production,” she said.
In a season three finale post-mortem interview with Business Insider, Lady Danbury actor Adjoa Andoh said that filming for the new season is set to begin “sometime in the autumn.”
That means “Bridgerton” will probably not return until 2025 at the earliest.
All episodes of season three of “Bridgerton” are now streaming on Netflix.