5 things you don't know about the new season of Bridgerton

Dearest Readers, The ton are abuzz with the latest gossip, and so it is my honour to impart to you: Bridgerton shall officially return for a second season. I do hope you have stored a bottle of ratafia for this most delightful occasion. The incomparable cast of Bridgerton will return to production in the Spring of 2021. This author has been reliably informed that Lord Anthony Bridgerton intends to dominate the social season. I will have my pen ready to report on any and all of his romantic activities. However, gentle reader, before you set the comments section alight with requests for more sordid details, know that I am disinclined to report on the particulars at this time. Patience, after all, is a virtue.

With these words about a year ago Lady Whistledown announced the return of Bridgerton, making the enthusiasm of the more than 82 million Netflix viewers who followed the first eight episodes of the show skyrocket, falling in love with the handsome Duke of Hastings and the vicissitudes of Lady Violet's daughters and sons. In these days, as an unexpected Christmas present, the official release date of the second season has been revealed: March 25, 2022.

Just a few more months and we will discover how the story of the Bridgerton family will continue. In 2020, the Bridgerton family's story ended, revealing that behind the pen of Lady Whistledown hides Penelope Featherington, the character played by actress Nicola Coughlan. If curiosity is consuming you, G-club is here to reveal 5 things you don't know about the new season of Bridgerton, 4 things about the working in progress and plot and a very sad news.

Filming has just finished

With a post that portrays him together with actors Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey, on November 20, the creator of the series, Chris Van Dusen, announced the end of filming the new episodes, thanking all the cast and crew for the great effort. The filming of the second season began at the end of April, but suffered several interruptions due to the pandemic, the most serious in mid-July when a new case of Covid-19 (a disease that led to the death of Marc Pilcher, responsible for makeup and hairstyle of the series) forced the production of Bridgerton to stop working in progress. Luckily the stop, which at the beginning due to the protocols and restrictions put in place in Great Britain to prevent the spread of the virus seemed indefinite, lasted less than expected, allowing the shooting of the episodes to start and finish.

The focus will be on Anthony Bridgerton

With Simon and Daphne's story happily concluded, the new season will focus on Anthony Bridgerton, just like in The Viscount Who Loved Me, the second of Julia Quinn's novels on which the Netflix series is based. Phoebe Dynevor previewed this months ago, even before any reliable leaks emerged, to Harper's Bazaar, adding:

I'd like to see Daphne get involved in Anthony's love life, since he was so involved in hers.

Among dances, gossip and hot moments, this time it will be the turn of the character played by Jonathan Bailey to find a partner for life and get married. Once the relationship with the opera singer is definitely over, in the new episodes the young man will meet the Sharma sisters. He will be fascinated by both of them, but only one of them will turn out to be his true love. 

But beyond this triangle, a lot more will happen, as Bailey told British Vogue:

Well, I feel like the campy, plush spectacle of the Bridgerton world is only going to get more pronounced in the best way possible. It's mad, and it's brilliant. There are also going to be a lot of brilliant characters introduced in this series and it's not just Anthony that we're going to delve into... The robust universe that's been set up by Shonda [Rhimes] and Chris [Van Dusen] will just expand and keep pushing boundaries in a way that's quietly subversive. There's just going to be more of what everyone loves, I think.

One of those Easter Eggs is rumored to be about bees. If you remember in the final episode of season one, when Daphne and the Duke of Hastings' son is born, a bee appears in the window. The same insect caused a strong allergic reaction to the Bridgerton patriarch, Edmund, leading to his death and triggering in Anthony a sort of phobia related to the premature death of his father.

The female protagonist will be played by Simone Ashley from Sex Education

In the new episodes Phoebe Dynevor and her Daphne Bridgerton will leave the place of the protagonist to Kate Sharma, a character never appeared until now that is described as a young woman of Indian origin intelligent and stubborn just arrived in London, who can not stand the fools, including Anthony Bridgerton, which, however, will become his main love interest. Playing her will be Simone Ashley, an actress known to Netflix audiences for her role as Olivia in Sex Education.

There will be 4 new actors in the cast

All the regular cast will appear in the second season, but besides Kate Sharma there will be four more new entries. The first two are her younger sister Edwina, played by Charithra Chandran, and her mother namely Lady Mary Sharma, who apparently gave up the title of Countess to run away with her true love. Chandran, known for her role in the Amazon Prime series Alex Rider, said she is excited about the new work adventure:

My mother and I are big fans of Jane Austen's books and stories set during the English Regency, never would I have imagined that someone with my looks could play a role like this.

Also joining the cast are Calam Lynch and Rupert Young who will play Theo Sharpe, "a hardworking printer’s assistant who fights for the rights for all," and Jack, "a nobleman from a family as well-known as the Bridgertons. The character is an original creation of the TV series, and is not present in the books."

The Duke of Hastings will not appear in it

Those who know the books of Julia Quinn could easily imagine it, but when on January 21, 2021 Regè-Jean Page announced on his Instagram page that he will no longer be part of the cast broke the hearts of all Bridgerton fans. The actor, who played the handsome Duke of Hastings in the first eight episodes of the series, thanked viewers for their affection and promised to return soon with new projects. Among Page's next confirmed engagements are the thriller The Gray Man together with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, but also Dungeons & Dragons, the film inspired by the successful video game of the same name that in the cast also includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith.