First Bridgerton Season 5 Teaser Officially Confirms Main Characters (& Changes the Books Again)

Videos by ComicBook.com

It was left unclear as to whether Bridgerton Season 5 would be Eloise’s story or Francesca’s, with the former potentially ready to embrace love, and the latter having lost her husband, John. Now it’s official that it will be the latter, with the next installment telling the story of Francesca’s romance with John’s cousin, Michaela Stirling, with Hannah Dodd and Masali Baduza stepping up into the lead actor positions. Check out the teaser below, which promises that: “Love begins again.”

Play video

Bridgerton Season 5’s Main Couple Changes The Book Order

Going purely off the order of the Bridgerton books, the fifth season should have been Eloise’s story, with book #5 in the series, To Sir Phillip, With Love, being about her romance with Sir Phillip Crane. Instead, Season 5 will skip ahead to the sixth book, When He Was Wicked. This isn’t the first time the show has done this: it switched the order of Benedict and Colin’s stories as well, with the latter coming first in the show for Season 3, and the former being adapted for Season 4.

There is some understandable logic to this, because Season 4’s ending left Francesca and Michaela’s story with a real sense of narrative momentum. While Michaela had promised Francesca she would stay with her following John’s death, she then promptly decided to leave Mayair behind without a goodbye, seemingly because of the growing feelings she has for her.

That side of things will be explored more in Season 5, which will be the first to have a same-gender couple as its lead romance. Speaking with Netflix Tudum, showrunner Jess Brownell said the season feels “groundbreaking” in that regard, and that it will, primarily, be about “yearning.” On Michaela specifically, she added:

“From what we set up in Season 4, we’ve gone pretty deep into Francesca’s story. What we haven’t done is go into Michaela’s perspective just yet. It’s very intentional that we haven’t really dug into why she left and what that means, because we want to save her perspective for Season 5. We’ll understand what she’s been feeling all along now that we’re telling Francesca and Michaela’s story.

While this is adapting the book, it won’t play out exactly the same. The show has already gender-swapped the lead character – in the novel, Michaela is instead Michael – and that should mean some other changes as well, which will be interesting to see play out. Nonetheless, the chemistry between Dodd and Baduza already looks undeniable, and Season 4 provided a strong platform to build upon as they navigate their grief and complicated feelings, so there’s a lot to look forward to here.

At the same time, fans might be disappointed that Eloise’s story will have to wait. The character became a firm favorite across the show’s first couple of seasons, but has faded into the background on occasion in seasons 3 and 4. Hopefully, while Season 5 isn’t her story, it’ll still find room to include her more and start properly laying the groundwork for that in Season 6.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!