Bridgerton Season 2: Release Date, Cast & Story Details
With Bridgerton season one over, here's everything we know about the impending second season of Netflix's grand historical and scandalous drama.
Netflix's Bridgerton season one made a late play for the title of the best TV show of the year, but will the period drama return for a second series? Given the fact that the show is based on an 8-book series, by Julia Quinn, there is ample story potential for a return and the Christmas release seems destined to bottle-neck viewers to the show. And that potentially inflated audience will find grand reward in the excellent show.
Part of Shonda Rhimes' production deal with Netflix, but created by Grey's Anatomy and Scandal alumnus Chris Van Dusen, Bridgerton is a surprisingly progressive Georgian/Regency era drama. With a diverse cast - which is addressed in the show through a change to history - and the adoption of modern pop music (albeit covered in the style of the time, mostly), it is a more feminist take on most of the traditions of the genre. And through. a combination of wonderful sets, great performances, and story-telling, it is a captivating experience that should prove to be one of Netflix's most talked about series.
That compelling status might be confirmed in one particularly controversial scene that will no doubt grab a lot of attention, but in terms of the show's overall quality, it would be well-deserved. And though follow-ups are already more than simply speculatively likely, nothing is yet set in stone, so the potential for success is definitely a big thing for the show. Here's everything to know about Bridgerton season 2.
Though Netflix has a habit of delaying any announcements of second seasons until there's some indication of how the first has performed, Bridgerton has the advantage of being part of the massive deal between Shonda Rhimes and Netflix that could reportedly be the biggest in the streaming platform's history. As such, the second season has been confirmed for some time, with the production of the second chapter unwittingly announced by Production Weekly. There's no official announcement from Netflix yet, but projections for the show are impressive so far and there's no reason to doubt the listing.
While the production of season 2 was teased by that schedule, the COVID-19 pandemic turned any initial plans inside out, with the rearranged schedule moved to March 2021 (according to What's On Netflix). That would suggest that 2022 would be a reasonable release expectation unless winter 2021 is eyed. Given that the first season filmed from July 2019 and wasn't announced as complete until March 2020, that would require a heavier production schedule. It's not impossible, of course, but it may be best to look to 2022.
The Bridgerton book series follows much of the same cast of characters, with new additions brought in, and it seems likely that Netflix's series will follow suit. So it should be expected that the main cast - the Bridgertons, Featheringtons, Queen Charlotte, and the other families and faces of the ton will return to explore their lives further. The books also offer an opportunity for new characters, so expect starrier casting for plum roles, in the vein of Julie Andrews voicing Lady Whistledown.
There are 8 Bridgerton books to draw from, so there is a wealth of material for the future of Netflix's Bridgerton show. The book series focuses on the family over the course of several years, expanding the family and exploring individual characters' lives in greater detail. It seems unlikely the series will deviate from that focus, even if the anthology approach of the books has already been pushed aside for a more amalgamated narrative. There are a lot of stories to tell, but given the success of the central pair of Simon and Daphne, it may be that they take more central roles than the later books.
The decision to reveal Lady Whistledown's identity at the end was a bold move, because that doesn't happen until book four of the Bridgerton books, but it's done in such a way that the mystery can presumably continue. And that's good news, because the scandal element of Bridgerton is one of its most compelling narrative choices. There's also a lot set up in the final episode that could translate to further story expansion in Netflix's new potentially successful show.