Bridgerton viewers think they have found proof that season 4 centers around Benedict’s love story with Sophie — and casting could already be underway.
Netflix has released a casting call for a character named Emily, according to Collider. The outlet described the key role as a character roughly between 24 to 30 years old and described as “plucky, endlessly resourceful, and having trouble trusting others.” The newcomer is scripted as an East Asian female and there was a note about the job involving nudity and scenes of a sexual nature.
Casting calls usually use code words to keep details about crucial roles under wraps. This led some Bridgerton fans to think Emily had to be important since the show is in production for the next season. Fans quickly took to social media to speculate about what the subtle casting news could mean.
“The Bridgerton fandom focusing on the ‘major recurring role’ for doubts instead of the whole description screaming Sophie Beckett,” read a post via X while another person wrote, “Sophie Beckett asian vision in Jessie Mei Li may be real and i’m delighted.”
Based on Julia Quinn‘s book series, each season of Bridgerton focuses on a different member of the titular family as they attempt to find love in 19th-century London. The hit Regency show is expected to have eight seasons based on the eight novels written by Quinn about each Bridgerton sibling.
Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) was the initial focus when Bridgerton debuted in 2020. Season 2 followed up with Daphne’s brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and this year Colin (Luke Newton) took center stage. The third season marked the first time the TV show strayed from the original order of Quinn’s books by following Colin’s journey over Benedict’s (Luke Thompson).
Ever since the narrative shakeup, readers have shown their support for Benedict to be the next lead. Season 3, which was released earlier this month, hinted that Benedict, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) or Eloise (Claudia Jessie) could be the focus of season 4.
Thompson, 35, previously expressed that he wasn’t bothered by the fact that Benedict’s story has been delayed.
“It’d be nice to give the character a full exploration, that’d be really fun, but the way the show runs — it’s a big ensemble show,” he told Country and Town House in May. “As long as I’m given interesting things to do, I don’t really mind.”
Meanwhile, showrunner Jess Brownell seemed to confirm that Benedict would end up with Sophie after she gender-swapped Francesca’s love interest from Michael to Michaela.
“The introduction of Sophie is definitely still in the cards, but we are going to continue to explore his fluidity,” Brownell told TheWrap earlier this month after Benedict was confirmed on screen to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community. “This is not the end of that storyline.”
The last episode of the third installment dropped a major hint about Benedict’s future when Eloise mentioned their mother’s masquerade ball. Fans of Quinn’s An Offer From a Gentleman novel know that Benedict becomes infatuated with a mystery woman a.k.a Sophie after meeting her briefly at the ball.
“At the end of Season 3, Eloise says to Benedict that she’s going to be home in a few months for Violet’s masquerade ball, so there will be a masquerade ball coming up shortly,” Brownell noted. “I’ll just leave it there.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
