Dearest gentle reader, at long last, Netflix has confirmed that Benedict Bridgerton’s story is the next to take center stage in Bridgerton’s ton – or, more specifically, at its masquerade ball. Netflix’s Tudum confirms that Benedict will meet a mysterious Lady in Silver, otherwise known as Sophie Beckett in Julia Quinn’s An Offer from a Gentleman, at the event thrown by his mother, Dowager Viscountess Violet Bridgerton. After dodging and weaving past debutantes and ambitious mamas for three seasons, the second-born Bridgerton son will take the lead in Bridgerton Season 4.
Anticipation has been building around Benedict’s season for quite some time. To be more specific, the rumor mill has been abuzz since Bridgerton skipped past his season to go to Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington’s friends-to-lovers story in Season 3. When Bridgerton Season 2 dropped in March 2022, it felt like Netflix could go either way. After all, Benedict setting aside art and Penelope overhearing Colin saying he would never court her are two critical points in Benedict and Colin/Penelope’s stories in Quinn’s book series.
(By the way, Quinn shared Netflix’s announcement on Instagram, writing, “Dearest Gentle Viewer… It’s #Benophie time!! Yours truly, JQ.”)
With that switch-up and other changes from the books, the Netflix series charts its own timeline – Daphne and Simon, Anthony and Kate, Colin and Penelope, and now Benedict and (presumably, if there are no name changes) Sophie Beckett. The new season will turn “its focus to bohemian second son Benedict. Despite his elder and younger brothers both being happily married, Benedict is loath to settle down,” per its logline.
Bridgerton Season 3 sees Benedict explore his sexuality with an independent widow, Lady Tilley Arnold, and her friend, Paul Suarez. When Tilley suggests that she and Benedict make their relationship exclusive, Benedict tells Tilley, “What happened between the three of us, what has happened ever since I met you, has made me realize how good it feels to be free. You have opened my world. And I am not ready to close it again right now.”
It seems like some time may pass between seasons because that conversation takes place in Bridgerton 3×08, “Into the Light.” However, by Season 4, “Benedict has always been a little lost — or free, depending on the way you want to look at it. But now he’s trying to find something a bit more solid in himself,” Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict, tells Tudum. Enter: the woman dubbed the Lady in Silver. Fans of Quinn’s romance novels will immediately notice that nickname as that for Sophie Beckett, the bastard daughter of an Earl who falls in love with Benedict in an inter-class, Cinderella-retelling romance.
Netflix has yet to reveal who will be playing this highly-anticipated role, but it’s more than enough (for now) to revel in the mere mention of her existence. It’s easy to be abuzz about this news because of how excited the creative team is to tell Benedict’s story.
“I’m really excited about what we’re writing. We’re toward the end with the writers room season, with the scripts. And I feel like it’s some of my best work and my writers room’s best work. We’ve just really gelled our collaboration, and we’re firing on all cylinders, so I can’t wait for fans to see what we have,” showrunner Jess Brownell said at Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2’s UK premiere, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Even Luke Newton, who plays Colin Bridgerton, teased his excitement about what’s next for Bridgerton in an interview with L’Beauté Homme. “I love Benedict’s storyline this season, he is very free and I think that is a very nice place to sit on set. He is a free spirit and kind of a rebel. I can’t wait to see Benedict’s story next season,” Newton said.
Meanwhile, Thompson tells Deadline, “Not to sound too strange, but he was a bit of a mystery to me. I’m as curious about it as hopefully other people are about where it will go, because I think what’s fascinating about Benedict is a character that he’s really struggling with something inside. He’s not able to be fully vulnerable about or fully committed to something. So it’ll be really exciting to see where that takes him and if he manages to crack it — and what happens when and if he does crack it.”
Based on the few details Netflix has shared about Season 4, it’s a hope that Bridgerton will dive into that more vulnerable side of Benedict. The show’s third season leaves him more alone than he’s used to experiencing in a house as full as Bridgerton House.
He ends his relationship with Tilley (and assumedly Paul), and Eloise leaves to stay in Scotland with Francesca (and her husband, John Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin, and his cousin Michaela Stirling). Not to mention, Anthony and Kate are away on a trip to India, and Colin and Penelope are moving into their own home after their wedding.
Benedict Bridgerton is bound to discover more about himself and what he wants now that there’s only room for that self-reflection. So, it is unsurprising that during their swing-set conversation of the third season, Benedict tells Eloise, “Believe me, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. It feels, right now, that the next thing I might learn may change me entirely.” What is more fitting for a Bridgerton season’s lead to learn other than how to want to commit to someone when they open their heart to love?
It would be extra special for Benedict to have that learning moment on the ballroom floor at the masquerade ball with the Lady in Silver and set to a classical version of Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version).” Luckily, it’s only a matter of time now.
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Are you excited to see Benedict’s story in Bridgerton Season 4? Let us know in the comments below!
Bridgerton is streaming now on Netflix!
