Who will take centre stage in Bridgerton season 5?
Based on Julia Quinn’s historical romance novels, Bridgerton is one of Netflix’s biggest original series, providing sexy, romantic escapism in a period setting where history has been rewritten to allow for more racial diversity and way more colourful clothes.
We know who will get their love story in seasons 5 and 6!
Though it has an ensemble cast and features a narrator who is interested in everyone in the ton (London’s high society during the Regency era), each season pays particular focus to one of the eight siblings in the titular Bridgerton family, who are named in alphabetical order. However, the show is following them not in the order of their birth, but in the order of their marriages: eldest daughter Daphne, fourth-born, was the focus of the first season; first-born Anthony the second, third-born Colin the third, and second-born Benedict the central sibling of the current fourth season.
That leaves four seasons and four siblings to go – and with a new teaser trailer just dropped, excitement is reaching fever pitch. Here’s what we know about what comes next.
Bridgerton season 5 will focus on Francesca.
In hot-off-the-press news, it's been revealed that the sixth sibling, Francesca, will be taking up most of the screen time. But here’s the thing: she's already married. During the Colin-focused season 3, Francesca quietly married John Stirling, with whom she shares a deep friendship and a tender but not particularly passionate sex life. At the end of the season, it was revealed that Francesca is queer (though she may not realise it), as she developed feelings for Stirling’s female cousin, Michaela, who came back into Francesca’s life in season 4 and then quickly left again when she fled Mayfair.
Bridgerton's showrunner Jess Brownell has been inundated with questions since that cliffhanger. And now, she's finally ready to answer them. Speaking to Netflix, she revealed that “More than ever, Season 5 is going to be about yearning", hinting that we're about to witness the series' first sapphic love story. “It feels groundbreaking. Obviously, there are a lot of great shows that have depicted queer love. We’re not the first by any means,” she continued. “But to make an entire Bridgerton season about a sapphic relationship feels huge.”
How does this relate to Quinn's original novels? Brace yourself: spoilers ahead! In the book series, Francesca’s husband dies, and she then marries his cousin, Michael. For series 5, Netflix have confirmed that the same basic beats of the narrative will stay the same – grieving widow, new romantic prospects with a cousin – while turning into queer love story with a major gender swap.
“I’ve said from the beginning that this show, in so many ways, is about allowing people to see themselves represented, allowing themselves to dream, and imagine themselves in these fantastical roles,” said Brownell. “It never felt right to not be inclusive of queer love as well within that fantasy.”
It was perhaps only a matter of time before we saw a sapphic relationship take centre stage. Bridgerton takes place in a world where queer love and relationships exist and can even flourish (see Benedict being bisexual, the gay subplot in Queen Charlotte), but up until this point, homosexual marriage hasn't really been a thing. And given the backlash to Will’s awkward coming-out scene in the final season of Stranger Things, we imagine that the Bridgerton writers are going to be very intentional with how they handle Francesca finding her one true love in a woman.
Already, it seems like the relationship is in safe hands. “What is most exciting about Season 5 is that it is going to be a season about queer joy,” said Brownell. “It is not going to be a season about queer trauma. There are going to be difficulties for the characters and conflict in the same way there is for every Bridgerton character. But we are still always grounding our love stories in the fact that this series is about joy. It’s about humour.
“Those of us who know what it’s like to be in a sapphic relationship or have a sapphic crush understand that’s so baked into the experience,” she continued. “We had a lot of fun in the writers room for Season 5 talking about what is really specific to women-loving-women relationships. Like the moment where you think, like, ‘Oh gosh, are we just friends? Or is this more?’ You know, the gay panic. We’re having so much fun with it this season!”
There are clues at the end of season 4.
Speaking to Glamour, Brownell revealed, “I think that there are some clues [about season 5], but my guess is that it is not as black-and-white as last season. Personally, I thought it was really obvious that we were doing Benedict when he was like, ‘See you at the masquerade ball.’ But then I saw that people were still debating whether it was going to be his season or not. So I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ I think it’s less clear than that, probably.”
Brownell went into more detail about Benedict's role in season 5 in her recent Netflix interview, too. “Benedict is a queer person no matter what relationship he ends in," she said. "It’s a really beautiful thing to get to tell a story about a queer person who, even if he ends up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, still identifies as queer. Benedict is a great potential ally for Francesca going into Season 5.”
Which siblings are left for seasons 7 and 8?
The two youngest Bridgertons are Gregory and Hyacinth. In the fourth season, we learn that Gregory has gone to Eton to study and returned with a fuzzy beard, while Hyacinth is eagerly throwing herself into training for her eventual society debut, memorising the rules of hostessing and sneaking into balls.
Actors Will Tilson and Florence Hunt are both 19 in real life, and could conceivably film sex scenes by the time their turns in the spotlight roll around, but it wouldn’t be out of the question to recast the roles with older actors just so the audience doesn’t still think of them as the kids they were in season 1.
The plan has always been for an eight-season show, though that depends on Netflix, which has so far renewed the series through season 6.
This article originally appeared on Glamour US.
