In an interview with former United States President, Bill Clinton, on his podcast, Bridgerton producer Shonda Rhimes revealed that she was fine with Regé-Jean Page, the breakout star of the first season of the Netflix hit, would not be returning to the series for a second season.
Rhimes was highly complimentary of Page, while noting that the format of the series was specifically designed to withstand the loss of actors, even lead actors, from earlier seasons.
Clinton opened things up by asking Rhimes, “So is it going to be hard to keep it going? And are we ever going to see Regé‑Jean again?”
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Rhimes responded, “Well, it’s not going to be hard to keep going because they’re based on the books of Julia Quinn. And Julia’s written… The Bridgerton family has eight children and she’s written eight books, one for each kid. So we’ve got a lot of material to work with, which is really great.”
As Rhimes notes, the concept of the novel series was that each book would spotlight the romance of a specific Bridgerton sibling. The first season covered the romance of Phoebe Dynevor’s Phoebe Bridgerton with Page’s Simon Bassett, while the second season will star Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton and Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma. This is why Page was only signed for a single season.
However, Rhimes had nothing but praise for Page, noting, “I don’t know that any of us expected the magic that Regé was going to bring to the screen. I think that was electrifying. He brought such a depth and a soulfulness to that role in an excitement that I thought was amazing. And I just don’t think I expected it.”
Rhimes finished the topic by talking about how much she likes this particular format, “I always say to people, the Duke is never gone. He’s just sort of waiting to be binge watched all over again. But we really only… The whole idea is that, and this is very different for television, that we’re going to tell a close ended love story. Every season is exciting to me because then you don’t have to come up with fake reasons why the couple can’t be together anymore. You get to actually fulfill the story that was meant to be told and then let them go on. So that’s kind of the plan.”
Bridgerton stars Phoebe Dynevor, Jonathan Bailey, Nicola Coughlan, Claudia Jessie, Ruby Barker, Golda Rosheuvel, Luke Thompson, Luke Newton, Ruth Gemmell, Polly Walker, Charithra Chandran, Rupert Young and Julie Andrews. Season 2 has yet to receive a release date.
Source: Deadline
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