Turns out the idea to change Francesca’s love interest from Michael to Michaela has actually been a discussion in the Bridgerton writers’ room since the first season.
“The reveal of Michaela versus Michael — from the books — is something that I’ve been pitching from season 1 of the show,” showrunner Jess Brownell told Teen Vogue earlier this month. “My approach to telling a queer story on Bridgerton has been to look to the books for thematic cues. I didn’t want to just insert a queer character for queer character’s sake.”
Brownell noted that the show started dropping hints two seasons later, adding, “My hope is that watching this season, people see how we’re telling a piece of that story, even starting in episode 1 of season 3 with Francesca, in terms of all of the debutantes having always imagined what they wanted their husbands to be like. Francesca realizes, ‘I’ve never thought about that, actually. Why is that?’ It was a thread we were playing with.”
Season 3 shifted the focus more on Francesca (Hannah Dodd) as she met her now-husband John (Victor Alli). Fans of Julia Quinn‘s books, however, are well aware that Francesca remarries after (spoiler!) John’s shocking death. Based on Quinn’s novel When He Was Wicked, Francesca finds love again later with John’s cousin Michael.
The season 3 finale, which started streaming on Netflix June 13, threw that plot for a loop when John introduced Francesca to his cousin Michaela (Masali Baduza).
“Dearest Gentle Reader, I find myself suddenly at a loss for words,” Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews) said in a voiceover as Francesca appeared tongue-tied during her first conversation with Michaela.
Not every viewer, however, was excited at the prospect of more LGBTQIA+ representation . Some book fans specifically claimed they were losing out by not getting an exact adaptation of Francesca’s story line.
“The fact of the matter is, the fan base is not a monolith, and you’re never going to please every single side of the fan base,” Brownell explained to Teen Vogue. “In, for example, deciding to tell a queer story with Francesca, I spoke with Julia Quinn, I got her blessing.”
She added: “We talked about the fact that with almost any single book, there would be a side of the fandom that would be disheartened to see their favorite characters changed. I don’t think that there is any book that wouldn’t happen with, so for me, again, it came back to story, and it came back to character.”
Dodd, 29, also expressed her support for the narrative shake-up, telling Tudum earlier this month, “Jess had a Zoom with me and told me about the direction that they wanted to go in. I’m just so excited and really proud to get to tell that story. We’re so lucky to have Masali, and she’s the most beautiful person in the world.”
