Mere months after Polin finally found their happy ending, Bridgerton has already set its sights on its next leading man: and it’s none other than Luke Thompson’s charming, artistic, pansexual Benedict.
Netflix made the announcement with a video which spliced together some of the second eldest Bridgerton brother’s best moments to date, before we see Thompson, dressed casually with a script in hand, opening the door of his hotel room. “I hear we’re fitting you for a suit,” he’s told. “It’s for the masquerade ball.” He grins in response.
Per the logline, “the fourth season of Bridgerton turns its focus to bohemian second son Benedict… Despite his elder and younger brothers both being happily married, Benedict is loath to settle down – until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.”
Spearheaded by showrunner Jess Brownell and executive-producer Shonda Rhimes, the upcoming eight-part insta;lment will be based on the third book in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, An Offer from a Gentleman. (Fans had previously assumed that Season 3 would center on Benedict’s romance, but Penelope and Colin’s love story from the fourth novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, was brought forward instead.) In the book, Benedict falls for Sophie Beckett, the daughter of an earl who’s been hidden away from the Ton and forced to work as a housemaid by her spiteful stepmother. After Sophie sneaks into Lady Bridgerton’s annual masquerade ball, she and Benedict have a Cinderella-meets-Romeo-&-Juliet moment, with Benedict enchanted by the masked beauty. When she later flees, he vows to track her down by any means possible.
Lacing herself into a corset to play the newly christened Sophie Baek? Australian actor Yerin Ha, who’s previously appeared in the Paramount+ adaptation of Halo and will star in HBO’s Dune prequel series, Dune: Prophecy, later this year.