Bridgerton renewed by Netflix for season 3, season 4
Today, Vanity Fair confirmed that the streaming service has picked up the period drama for both a season 3 and season 4, and this comes on the heels of the season 2 renewal earlier this year. While Netflix doesn’t typically give renewals out for this many seasons at once (the last time we can think of it was Orange is the New Black), we do understand the idea here. This show exploded in popularity, and having more episodes allows the creative team to think so much further ahead. This is something that executive producer Shonda Rhimes herself confirmed to the aforementioned publication (in a shared interview with fellow EP Betsy Beers):
Having come from a different model of making television—doing 24 episodes a season with Grey’s Anatomy, for instance—the idea that you make eight episodes of something….It’s great, but it also just felt like, That’s it? We’re just going to pull down all the sets?! We spent all that money and that’s all we’re going to do? The Midwest girl in me was like, But we’ve cut coupons! [Both women burst out laughing.] When you have multiple season orders, it allows you to plan in a creative way, storytelling wise. You can plan a long arc character, for instance.
Rhimes also commented on the shock that many fans felt over the departure of Rege Jean-Page following the first season, even though his exit was planned out largely by the structure of the series and the source material:
I was really shocked, because usually that happens when I’ve killed off somebody that’s been around for a while. Like, we didn’t kill him, he’s still alive! [Regé-Jean] is a powerful, amazing actor and that meant we did our job—every season, our job is finding the right people and putting together this incredible, world-shifting romance. I don’t know that I expected this much of an explosion, given that every book [in the Bridgerton series] is a different romance. What would be the ever-after of this combo? I mean, really: What would Regé-Jean do, you know what I mean? We gave them their happily ever after! And now we have this next couple coming. And so yeah, I was like, whoa!
Even though Netflix has given Bridgerton so many seasons in advance, we do think you’ll be waiting a while for what lies ahead. The earliest we would expect season 2 is close to the end of this year; with that, seasons 3 and 4 would be here, at the earliest, in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
What do you think about Bridgerton getting so many early renewals?
Be sure to let us know in the attached comments! After you do that, stick around to ensure that you don’t miss any further updates. (Photo: Netflix.)