Will Netflix's 'Bridgerton' Return for a Season 2?
After less than a month on Netflix, the hit series Bridgerton has captivated audiences with its saturated pastel color story, dashingly attractive men, and lots of sex. The streaming platform recently revealed that the show is estimated to reach 63 million households within its first four weeks of airing. However, there have been no confirmations on whether the series has secured a second season. Despite this, showrunner Chris Van Dusen has already stated that he would like to make—wait for it—eight seasons in total.
The storyline of the Shondaland show's first season is derived from The Duke and I, the first of eight in the Bridgerton novel series by Julia Quinn. It follows Daphne Bridgerton as she completes her debutante season in search of a husband, which she finds in the form of her brother's friend, Simon, the Duke of Hastings. The other books in the series spotlight each of the other seven Bridgerton children.
Speaking with Collider, Van Dusen said, "This being a family of eight children and there being eight books, I would love to be able to focus and really tell stories and love stories for all the Bridgerton siblings. For each character, for sure."
If the show were to follow the novels, the second season would adapt The Viscount Who Loved Me which focuses on Daphne's older brother Anthony, played by Jonathan Bailey. While Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page captured fans with their love story as Daphne and the Duke, the season one finale tied a neat bow on their tale, just as it began unwrapping Anthony's.
In an interview with Deadline, Dynevor opened up about what could be on the docket for season two. "I genuinely have no idea what they’re going to do with the second season, but I imagine if they’re following the books, then it would be Anthony’s journey,” she said. “I’m sure Daphne will end up getting involved."
While the first season completed filming in February 2020 shortly before the beginning of the pandemic, Dynevor has concerns over how the new COVID-19 protocols will impact the actors' performance. In late 2020, the actress was on set in New York City for her show Younger. She said of the experience, "When I was filming, it was masks on in rehearsals. So you don’t take them off until you say action. Or at least we didn’t. It was a really strange experience. I didn’t see my character’s new boyfriend’s face until we were filming a scene together, which was really bizzare."
Dynevor worries that with these new rules in place, the actors won't be able to sufficiently prepare off-camera for their more intimate scenes (she and Page worked with an intimacy coach for six weeks to choreograph and rehearse their sex scenes).
She continued, "I can’t imagine how it would be possible to film under these circumstances. There are so many extras and so many crew members, and it’s a very intimate show. It just baffles me how we would film it under COVID rules unless there was a vaccine beforehand."
