Who will take center 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 colorful clothes.
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 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. Here’s what we know about what comes next.
Season 5 will focus on either Eloise or Francesca.
The fifth and sixth siblings, Eloise and Francesca, are both the right age, and showrunner Jess Brownell confirmed that they will be the focuses of season 5 and 6 when she wore “E & F” embroidered on her jacket to the season 4 premiere.
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But here’s the thing: Francesca is 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 realize it), as she developed feelings for Stirling’s female cousin, who came back into Francesca’s life in season 4.
Spoilers ahead! In the book series, Francesca’s husband dies and she then marries his cousin, Michael. But what with the gender swap and all, we don’t imagine that’ll be followed to the letter. 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 homosexual marriage doesn’t seem to be 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.
Eloise, on the other hand, has repeatedly declared that she has no interest in marriage and doesn’t seem to want sex or dating, either, though she got flirty with a commoner in season 2. But as with all things Bridgerton, nothing really matters until you meet the right person.
With Claudia Jessie, who plays Eloise, being six years older than Hannah Dodd, who plays Francesca, our money is on Eloise getting her happily-ever-after first. Francesca’s second big relationship can wait, but with Eloise being “out” in society for three years at this point, it’s probably time for her to find her match.
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.”
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, memorizing 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.
