Attention, gossips: Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’ will go heavy on Anthony
“Bridgerton,” the Regency-era period piece based on the novels of Julia Quinn, is coming back for a second season on Netflix.
The streaming service made the announcement Thursday in the voice of Lady Whistledown, the series’ certified gossip-monger. Production on the romantic drama, executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, is set to begin this spring.
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“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,” a press release said, giving a hint at the upcoming plot line.
“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,” it continued. “Patience, after all, is a virtue.”
The first season of “Bridgerton,” which debuted on Christmas Day and reimagines the decorum and race relations of the uptight era through a modern lens, revolved primarily around the romantic foibles of Lady Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Duke Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page).
“Much of its lively, fast-paced story is filtered through [Daphne’s] gaze, with longing, conquest, passion, sex, love and loss all hers to explore, enjoy and agonize over,” The Times’ TV critic Lorraine Ali wrote in her review. “It’s a welcome flip of the script from TV’s traditional period romances.”
Marina Thompson has a secret. The “Bridgerton” character, played by Ruby Barker, wears a lover’s eye necklace in the first episode, tipping off Regency buffs.
In Season 2, the focus will turn to eldest Bridgerton sibling Anthony, played by Jonathan Bailey. In the first season, the character was preoccupied by a forbidden romance with an opera singer in addition to meddling in Daphne’s romantic situation — meddling in large part because with his father gone, he’s now the head of the family.
“I’m excited for Anthony. I really care for him. If I get to fall in love vicariously through him ... then that’s going to be amazing,” Bailey said in a December interview with Decider.
“I just want him to be OK. I want to see him smile. And I want to see him dance. Because he deserves the happiness afforded to other characters much earlier in their lives.”
Netflix’s hottest new couple, Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor, stopped by “Good Morning America” to talk “Bridgerton,” Shonda Rhimes’ latest smash.
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