Bridgertonseason 4 will be adapting Benedict Bridgerton’s story, and the actress they cast to play his love interest is reviving a great trend that season 3 ignored. Aside from season 3, both ofBridgerton’sfirst two seasons and its spin-off series,Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, featured an interracial main couple. This is due toboth series taking place in a racially utopian alternate reality of Regency England.
TheBridgertontelevision series is based on the romancenovels of the same name written by Julia Quinn. In the novels, the races of the characters are not explicitly stated. However, theoriginal covers of all eight novels feature white body doubles, implying that both the Bridgerton siblings and their respective love interests are white. This makes the television series' decision to cast actors of color to play the Bridgerton siblings’ love interests significant, and the casting ofBenedict’s love interest for season 4further drives that trend.
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Bridgertonseason 4 has been officially confirmed to be Benedict’s season, and will be adapted from Quinn’s novelAn Offer From A Gentleman, which seesBenedict get married. The story isa loose adaptation of the Cinderella fairy taleand centers around Sophie Beckett, the illegitimate daughter of an earl who is unfairly treated as a servant by her stepmother and stepsisters.
Similarly to Cinderella, Sophie and Benedict meet incognito at the Bridgertons' masquerade ball, butshe flees at midnight before telling him her identity. Unaware of who she is, Benedict is unable to find Sophie — whom he refers to as The Lady in Silver — for several years until she coincidentally winds up under the employ of his mother. What follows is a steamy affair, a plot to frame Sophie for theft, and a delightful rags-to-riches storyline.
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The announcement that Benedict would be the leading Bridgerton sibling in season 4 was quickly followed bythe casting announcement for Sophie. Korean-Australian actressYerin Ha was tapped to play Benedict’s love interest. Ha is best known for her role as Kwan Ha in the Paramount+ seriesHalo, and she is set to appear as a younger version of Jihae’s character, Mother Kasha Jinjo, in the upcoming HBO original seriesDune: Prophecy.
Ha’s casting as Sophie Beckett continuesBridgerton’s trend of casting actors of color to portray the primary love interests of the Bridgerton siblings. In fact, Ha and Thompson asSophie and Benedict marks the show’s fourth main interracial couple. The pair followDaphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Regé-Jean Page), and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) — the main couples of season 1 and 2, respectively — as the leading interracial couple in the popular Netflix show, as well asQueen Charlotte (India Ria Amarteifio) and King George (Corey Mylchreest)in the spinoff show,Queen Charlotte.
Bridgertonalso features several minor interracial romances. Most notably is the relationship betweenFrancesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and John Stirling (Victor Alli)in season 3, as well as the promising courtship between Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis), Lady Danbury’s brother. Speaking of Lady Danbury, inQueen Charlotte, a recently widowed Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) engages ina one-off illicit affair with Violet’s father, Lord Ledger (Keir Charles). Although this relationship is not long-lasting, it was still passionate, andserved to show Lady Danbury what she had been missing.
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AlthoughBridgertonis set in a racially utopian version of Regency England,the show’s approach to race isn’t perfect. Prior to the release ofQueen Charlotte,Bridgertononlyvaguely referenced the event that ended racial segregationamong the high ranking families of the ton. Lady Danbury says to Simon in season 1,“We were two separate societies, divided by color, until a king fell in love with one of us.”
This was done in the hopes that audiences would accept this vague statement as a definitive answer. However, audiences were still willing to engage in the conversation of race in theBridgertonworld.Queen Charlotterevealed that the marriage between Charlotte and George not only led to the integration of racial minorities into high society, but tothe popularization and acceptance of interracial marriages. This was called theGreat Experiment. The show also depicted the realities of such a sudden societal change, showing the many ways in which the newly titled members of the ton continued to be excluded by their white peers.
The spin-off did not provide clear answers toBridgerton’s race problem, but it did show the steps being taken to better incorporate the previously separated lords and ladies. DespiteBridgerton’s missteps when it comes to its approach to race, the show’s dedication to centering interracial relationships is incredibly refreshing. Even with conversations around diversity, representation, and inclusion in the media;interracial romances being the focal point of a story are still fairly uncommon. It’s powerful when a popular show such asBridgertonemphasizes the lack of interracial romances by almost exclusively casting actors of color to portray love interests.
DespiteBridgerton’s missteps when it comes to its approach to race, the show’s dedication to centering interracial relationships is incredibly refreshing. Even with conversations around diversity, representation, and inclusion in the media; interracial romances being the focal point of a story are still fairly uncommon.
Not only does the show center interracial relationships, it also preserves these relationships as natural and long-lasting. The show does not paint these interracial romances in a negative light nor does it include aspects of domestic violence or abuse that are commonly seen in modern romance stories. Rather, the romances inBridgertonareportrayed as being very happy, passionate, and loving relationships. It will be exciting to seeBridgertoncontinue that trend in season four with Sophie and Benedict’s love story.
