Um, Did Bridgerton’s Showrunner Just Confirm A Long-Held Theory About This Key Character?

Bridgerton is a show that is truly a masterclass in authentic representation. While the source material focuses on entirely straight, white stories, the television adaptation has adopted a much welcome change in the choice to cast actors of different races, sexualities, and body types.

In Season 1, we watched as the Duke was played by the British-Zimbabwean Regé-Jean Page. In Season 2, the character of Kate Sheffield was transformed into Kate Sharma in an effort to reflect her Indian heritage, with Indian writers being heavily involved in the crafting of Simone Ashley's character. In Season 3, we'll watch on as Nicola Coughlan becomes the show's co-lead and primary love interest — a rare feat given Hollywood's penchant for thin women in love stories.

Diversity has become such a cornerstone in the Bridgerton universe that many people eagerly anticipate casting decisions, waiting to see if they'll see someone like them depicted on the screen.

But there's been one glaring omission in the Bridgerton universe thus far — a lack of queer stories. While the show made an effort to depict one queer story in the prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story between Reynolds and Brimsley, and of course, has previously had leads who identify as gay in Jonathan Bailey, there's been a conspicuous absence in queer main characters.

Until now.

In an interview with Bridgerton's new showrunner Jess Brownell, Brownell hints that we'll be getting more queer love stories at the forefront of future seasons. "Yeah, absolutely," Brownell tells Refinery29 Australia after asking whether the series would have queer main characters. "I think this is a show about the many ways in which people love. So it only feels right to show all the ways in which people love, including queer love."

"So we are exploring queer love stories across the next couple of seasons," she continues.

While confirming that there will be some major queer stories in the upcoming seasons, Brownell is still tight-lipped as to who will be at the centre of these stories. "I don't want to say exactly how that plays out," she says. "But it was important to me to foreground queer love and to tell queer stories and tell stories about queer joy as well."

While Brownell doesn't confirm exactly who will be queer — or how many characters will be — it's been long hypothesised that the TV show will choose to have Benedict, played by Luke Thompson, as a queer or bisexual character. Already in Season 1, Benedict showed interest in a male artist — at the very least indicating some sexual fluidity (after all, queerness is a spectrum!).

"We have the privilege of living in this fantasy world which means we can push back against some of the reality of what happened in the 1800s," Brownell continues.

Many fans may have theories about Benedict's sexuality and how this plays into his story (I, for one, am firmly in the camp that his 'Sophie' may be a 'Sofus'), what's important is that the choice to spotlight more queer characters and queer actors can only be a positive — regardless of who it is.