With the Polin saga having wrapped up in June, the accompanying spike in Bridgerton fever has had plenty of time to cool off. So, what better time than now to get the season 4 hype train up and running with the reveal of the next central Bridgerton sibling?
That’s right, gentle readers; Benedict — the unorthodox jokester, the sarcastic secondborn, the cheekiest Bridgerton of them all — will be the main focus of Bridgerton season 4. And while it’s hard to imagine anyone eclipsing the narrative might that Penelope and Colin brought to the table, the spotlighting of Benedict presents innumerable storytelling opportunities.
Benedict has, of course, long been coded as a queer character; coding that was taken to the next level in season 3 by blatantly confirming his attraction to both men and women. Bridgerton as a whole, meanwhile, is quite fundamentally interested in the idea of love, the many shapes it’s capable of taking, and the conversations around the embracing and/or shunning of certain shapes by society. Benedict, who has displayed less than zero tolerance for convention, could therefore be the tip of Bridgerton‘s most unique thematic spear yet.
That said, it doesn’t look like Benedict’s story will be straying terribly far from Julia Quinn’s source material, as Netflix has indicated that one Sophie Beckett will indeed be joining the ton’s fourth round of shenanigans (Sophie is Benedict’s happily-ever-after in his Quinn novel, “An Offer from a Gentleman”). We get the distinct impression, however, that Benedict’s bisexual rendezvous was indicative of bigger things to come in his story.
Whatever the case may be, the Bridgerton faithful are gleefully locked and loaded for it. All that’s left to do now is wait.
In the meantime, the first three seasons of Bridgerton are available to stream exclusively on Netflix. Season 4, the newly designated Benedict season, is in development.