No disrespect to Polin or Benophie, but the ton just isn’t the same without Bridgerton’s Kanthony—that would be Kate Sharma Bridgerton and Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, thank you very much. (Don’t worry; we haven’t forgotten about Saphne—more on them below.)
Kate and Anthony don’t appear in part one of Bridgerton season 4 (which dropped on Netflix on Thursday, January 29), but the actors that play them—Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey—are listed in Netflix’s cast list for season 4. (Bailey is considered a series regular, while Ashley is “additional key cast.”) So it’s only appropriate for fans to wonder where they’re at. Who doesn’t want to see more of People’s reigning Sexiest Man Alive?
“They’re definitely around in part two,” showrunner, writer, and executive producer Jess Brownell tells Glamour. “We made this meal of sending them off to India at the end of season three, and that’s a long journey,” she says. “They weren’t going to come back immediately.” And don’t forget that Bridgerton’s Kanthony were expecting their first child at the end of season 3; it’s understandable they wouldn’t be ready to travel back to England right away with a newborn.
Brownell also says she wanted some time to really focus on main couple Benedict and Sophie, whose story takes up a big chunk of time in this season’s first four installments. However, now that—and this is your spoiler warning—Benedict has crushed Sophie by asking her to be his mistress, Brownell says Anthony is really important for Benedict’s story going forward in the second half.
“It always was in our minds because that brotherly relationship is so primary,” she says. “And I think that the Kate/Eloise (Claudia Jessie) dynamic is one that continues to be really interesting. So those are ways in which we’ll explore it.”
But more than anything, seeing the fan-favorite couples from previous season feels like a nod to the audience, as if to say, “Thank you for supporting us.” In fact, on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Jonathan Bailey confirmed just that when he said Bridgerton “is an amazing thing to be a part of,” and “I’ll always pop back and say hello.”
Brownell agrees and says it “absolutely” means something to the fans to see past couples come back, especially given Bailey’s and Ashley’s busy schedules (Bailey with Wicked, Ashley with The Devil Wears Prada 2). “Johnny and Simone were totally game and really generous with their time to come back,” Brownell says. “I do think that we’re establishing a bit of a cadence with the show, in terms of a season’s leading players being a big part of the season immediately following theirs. And then, beyond that, it’s more about fitting them in when they’re able to and when the story calls for it. I think people will see that happen with leads going forward. That’s necessary with such a large ensemble to move the focus as we go on.”
Of course, it raises the question of whether fans will ever see Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor return as season one’s featured couple, Simon and Daphne. If you recall, Page caused quite a stir when he said he wouldn’t return for season two (even going as far as to say he wouldn’t mind if they recast the role), though Dynevor came back for the sophomore season to give fans a chance to catch up with Daphne and her new life. But now that quite a few years have passed, what are the chances that the Duke and Duchess of Hastings will ever return?
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“I would love one day to get every single lead back for, like, one big scene,” Brownell says. “[This season] the storyline was really full. I think if we are going to ask Regé or Phoebe to come back, we want to make sure that it’s worthy of their coming back and give them some meat to their story. It’s possible that we’ll have something like that in the future. But this season, the main couple really takes up a lot of story.”
And there you have it: Don’t lose hope, Bridgerton fans.
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