Nicola Coughlan will play a major role in ‘Bridgerton’ season 3

The second season of the hit period drama only premiered on Netflix in March this year, but less than two months on and fans are already looking ahead to season three of Bridgerton. 

However, while the first batch of episodes stuck rather closely to the plot of the first two Julia Quinn novels the series is based on, such will not be the case for season three which will skip ahead to book four. 

Speaking at Netflix’s NYSEE panel on Sunday, Nicola Coughlan confirmed that upcoming episodes will not focus on Benedict Bridgerton as expected, but rather the blossoming friendship/relationship between her character, Penelope Featherington, and Colin Bridgerton instead.

“Like Lady Whistledown, I’ve been keeping a secret for quite some time and I can confirm to you all that season 3 is Colin and Penelope’s love story. I have kept that secret since two weeks into season two. This is the first time I am saying it here,” she revealed.

Commenting on the dynamic between himself and Coughlan, Luke Newton (a.k.a. Mr Colin Bridgerton himself), told The Independent that he and Coughlan just clicked “from day one”. 

Recently speaking to The Independent about all things Bridgerton himself, Luke Newton (a.k.a. Mr Colin Bridgerton) said that he and the Galway actress clicked “from day one” and would often meet up for “a little gossip between scenes”. Apt considering Coughlan’s character is the show’s resident gossipmonger. 

In fact, Luke’s favourite hobby is apparently looking at the Polin (a portmanteau of Colin and Penelope) hashtag online to see what people are saying about them. “There’s so much love for that relationship,” he said in an interview with The Tab. “Which brings it pressure because there are people that are really excited about this store to come to the forefront. But it also really warms me. 

Aside from recent plot developments, little else is known about season three. Most of the core cast are likely to return, however, with the exception of Ruby Stokes (Francesca Bridgerton), who was cast as the lead of another series and left amidst conflicting filming schedules. Stokes will be replaced by Anatomy of a Scandal star Hannah Dodd. 

Premiering online on Christmas Day 2020, a lot has happened since Bridgerton first debuted to the world, but two years on and the hype has done little to dissipate. 

Ranked by Netflix as one of its most-popular English language TV series of all time, season one racked up over 625 million hours viewed in its first 28 days on the streaming platform, while season two overtook that record and reached 627 million hours viewed in just 23 days.

Subsequently renewed for a third and fourth season, production is only due to begin on upcoming episodes later this summer so we have a while to wait before new episodes will be ready. Sigh.