As most of us assumed, Bridgerton season 4 will center on second brother Benedict, played by Luke Thompson.
Production on season four is supposed to start in September (and run through spring 2025), which means we should be hearing pretty quick who has been cast as Sophie Beckett, Benedict’s love interest. That is, of course, assuming they don’t gender-bend Sophie as they have done with Michaela Stirling. I used to think Bridgerton didn’t really have the guts to make such big changes from the books, but now anything is on the table. They’ve been setting up Benedict’s fluid sexuality from day one, will they incorporate it into his love story?
Benedict’s book, An Offer From a Gentleman, depicts his love affair with Sophie, the illegitimate daughter of an earl who is treated as a pariah in her own home. It’s basically a Cinderella story, and it’s one of the frothier Bridgerton books, except for allusions to Sophie being abused by her father’s countess, Araminta (not technically her stepmother but playing the role of the evil stepmother in the narrative), and the very real fact that it would be enormously scandalous of Benedict to marry an illegitimate woman.
A significant portion of Benedict and Sophie’s love story is just figuring out how to deal with that reality. But that could just as easily be flipped to a same-sex love story. Bridgerton posits a more racially inclusive world, but they have shown that queer members of society are still forced to live and love in the closet. Sophie’s illegitimacy could easily be turned into Benedict dealing with the reality of a same-sex relationship in an unaccepting society, though that is the same ground Francesca and Michaela will eventually have to tread, too. But the possibility now exists for Sophie to be, like, Steve.
Bridgerton likes to have its cake and eat it, too, so assuming the story remains centered on an illegitimate girl falling for a Bridgerton, I’m sure we’ll be treated to some treatises on classism amidst mistaken identity hijinks, which I desperately hope the show deals with better than they do racial politics. I also wonder if they’ll do anything with the insinuation that Araminta is more than just mistreating Sophie, or if they’ll just go full-Cinderella and emphasize her life of servitude a la Ever After.
I’m also wondering if this is the season where we finally do the time jump. There are a couple time jumps in the Bridgerton book series, the first of which comes during Benedict’s story. He meets a mysterious “Lady in Silver” at his mother’s masquerade ball, then she disappears, and he never finds her, despite YEARS of looking. So far, Bridgerton has been set during consecutive years beginning in 1813. By the end of season three, we’re into 1815—with nary a mention of Waterloo!—so presumably season four will start in 1816. And then jump ahead? At some point we have to! Gregory and Hyacinth have to grow up!
I love an Offer From a Gentleman, it’s the right balance of romance and hijinks with just a whiff of realistic struggle for the main couple. I wish Bridgerton would just give us a straightforward adaptation, but at this point, the show seems hellbent on injecting drama wherever they can and keeping us from just enjoying a sweet treat. Season one is by far the best balanced between romantic fantasy and interpersonal drama, I would love it if season four could get us back to that place. But with a two-year wait before the season even hits Netflix, I wonder how attuned to Bridgerton people will even be by then. In 2020 when Bridgerton premiered, we needed a cozy escape. By 2025, who knows what the world will look like.
