9 Things I Can't Wait for in 'Bridgerton' Season 3

Last week, the highly anticipated trailer for the third season of Netflix’s adaption of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels dropped and the fandom has been bursting with glee, anticipation, and theories about the newest season especially as the run time of the TV series often causes a lot of little changes and adaptions from the books. Having watched the trailer more times than I should probably admit to (or can count), I feel it’s time to jump into the conversation about what I’m looking forward to the most.

Warning: Article contains potential spoilers for the first two seasons of Bridgerton and plot elements of Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.

It’s Penelope’s time to shine. Penelope, the perpetual wallflower of the series with a very serious crush on her best friend’s brother spent years as the girl who was never chosen, including in her own family. In the books, she’s actually in her late twenties before her story with Colin occurs, and her mother just assumes no one would pick Penelope so much that when Colin turns up wanting to speak with her about her daughter, Lady Featherington assumes he means Penelope’s remaining unmarried sister (in the books there was a fourth Featherington daughter who was Francesca’s best friend). Getting to see Penelope value herself as Penelope and not just Lady Whistledown is going to be a big deal. In the pamphlets she’s bold and forward, but the trailer highlights how shy and awkward she can be in person.
Will Lady Whistledown be revealed? In the books, readers did not even discover Penelope was Lady Whistledown until her book where her identity is eventually revealed to the bon ton. I can’t help but to wonder if they’ll actually reveal her identity in the show though. Lady Whistledown was a fun narrative device in the first four books, but I don’t know if she has the same level of impact that she does when she is the narrative voice played by the legendary Julie Andrews. She has become such a large part of the show that the showrunners may not want to drop her after only three seasons given her popularity. I’ll be curious to see if she does get revealed or not.
The Eloise and Penelope Fallout. With Eloise finding out Penelope was Lady Whistledown earlier than in the books and under different circumstances, there was a big fallout between the besties. Penelope called Eloise out on underestimating her and talking big, but never doing anything. Eloise was hurt at how her friend’s articles featuring her family profited her and sometimes hurt the Bridgertons. Both have reasons to be angry, but Eloise now appears to be befriending Cressida Cowper in the middle of this fallout. Fingers crossed that these two besties will sort things out, and keep an eye on Cressida, as she was up to no good in Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.
A love triangle for Colin and Penelope. While the book did not feature one, it does look like this season is going to help Colin realize Penelope is exactly who he should be courting by bringing in a rival in Lord Debling. Who this man is and why he ultimately won’t be the guy for Penelope should be fun to watch as well as Colin’s reaction to it all. The actors involved have been playfully bantering about the rivalry online.
The Bridgerton Boys. It’s not too long at all in the trailer before these brothers are back to their usual shenanigans of giving each other a bad time in such a manner that we’re reminded that even in the Regency, brothers are still brothers. Jonathan Bailey and Luke Thompson are hysterical in their ability to mirror each other’s gestures and reactions, and I’m immediately reminded of the previous season as Anthony kept digging himself in a verbal hole with Kate while Benedict was absolutely loosing any semblance of control over his amusement. With Colin as the romantic hero of this book, they are going to be merciless.
Anthony and Kate’s wedded bliss. Speaking of Kate and Anthony, with Regé-John Page and Phoebe Dynevor not returning as the Duke and Duchess of Hastings, it’s really nice that we still have Anthony and Kate around so that we can check in on how they’re doing. I suspect certain events that were hosted by Simon and Daphne in the book are like to switch to Viscount and Viscountess Bridgerton instead. In the books, the married off siblings did show up in cameos at times, so it will be nice to see that they’re still around and check in on them.
The setups for the next seasons. The first two seasons have done a particularly great job and setting up some of the plot elements that will impact the plotlines of the future books. Benedict’s book was skipped in order but given the time jump after the first bits of his book, there’s certainly some curiosity about whether or not one of his sibling’s seasons will drop those scenes to set up for his story. Francesca is also making her debut, and events that will create the background for her story could also come into play this season. There has already been events setting up Eloise’s book, and since her story and Francesca’s more or less happened in conjunction with Penelope’s, I am very curious to see how this is handled without overshadowing the current story or if things will be spread out just enough to keep the spotlight focus on one sibling.
The Mirror Scene and the Carriage Scene. Just like with the bee and the Pall Mall set, images featured in the promotional materials allude to some of the most iconic scenes in the series, particularly the Mirror Scene. Clever eyed readers have definitely have locked into peaks and updates that involved the romantic pair climbing out of a carriage (they really know how to tease the fans). These moments of reassuring the fans that just because there are changes, many of the favorite stuff is still in there.
The music adaptions. One of the most entertaining parts of the Bridgerton music is taking modern songs and doing classical covers of them. I amalways eager to see what gets adapted for the newest season.