The new trailer for the second season of Bridgerton is dripping in dazzling opulence, salacious scandal and shadowy intrigue - having been aptly released on Valentine's Day.
The promo clip has caused more speculation and titillation than a Lady Whistledown gossip column, with it promising a sequel which will do justice to the first hit Netflix series when it starts on March 25.
When Bridgerton, based on novels by Julia Quinn, first launched on the streaming giant at Christmas 2020, it became the streaming service’s biggest original series. It was viewed by a record 82 million households in just 28 days.
Set in 1813 Regency London, the glamour, stunning cast and the sex, quite frankly, catapulted this Jane Austen on steroids to the top of the most-watched lists.
It took everything we love about period drama and made it brighter, faster, and more outrageous. It showed us what we always hoped might have gone on behind Mr Darcy's closed door.
But what next for our favourite characters, and who are the newbies in town? Here we dissect the trailer and what it could tell us.
Do Daphne and Simon continue to live happily ever after?
I think we all have to accept this series isn’t going to be about our favourite beautiful and, ahem, very highly sexually driven couple.
We know Regé-Jean Page, 34, who played Simon, the brooding Duke of Hastings, will not be returning in the latest series, but Phoebe Dynevor, 26, will return as Daphne Bridgerton.
After a long and sexually tense courtship, we were captivated as the couple fell in love, married and embarked on joyous and frequent copulation… and then rowed because Daphne wanted a baby and the Duke didn't. But they got over that, and naturally produced an heir.
Will they now live happily ever after? It seems Daphne may spend this series more involved with her siblings’ love lives, happy to back out of the spotlight. Perhaps back at home in the mansion the Duke is simply happily left holding the baby.
The lavish sets
The scenery and buildings were as delicious as the storylines and look set to remain that way.
Bath starred before and looks to do so again. Filming took place at the Holbourne Museum, home to Lady Danbury, while the stunning Royal Crescent and Assembly Rooms make an appearance.
What's good for Jane Austen is good for Bridgerton. The show also returns to Wilton House, Wiltshire, which provided the exterior of Hastings House. The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, South East London, also glitters.
Stately homes such as Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire, West Wycombe Park, Bucks, which appeared in Downton Abbey, and Surrey's Hampton Court Palace look beautiful. Royal Ascot also hosts our stars.
Will Penelope find love?
While she is mainly busy scratching her waspy epistles, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan, 35) is also a heartbroken girl deeply in love with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton, 29).
Her pal, the nicer Bridgerton brother, has her neatly friend-zoned. But can she eventually shift herself from that very unsaucy and unwanted spot?
He sloped off during series one after discovering Penelope's cousin Marina Thompson (Ruby Barker, 25) was pregnant. Penelope made sure that he learnt the truth.
But it did not look like she had any chance of winning her man. Her rather embarrassing family, right, do not help her cause much either.
Tasty new love triangle
It seems like a whole new love interest – or two, or three – will take the Hastings' place with fans excitedly dubbing it 'Kathony.' Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey, 33) needs a good match after giving up mistress Siena Rosso (Sabrina Bartlett, 30).
In the trailer we clock lusty looks between him and Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran, 25) and sis Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley, 26) who arrive from India.
But when he courts Edwina, we're told Kate aims to stop the union and it's hinted things may get steamy between the pair.
Who are the new leading ladies?
Ashley's Kate promises to be a strong character who won't stand for Anthony's demands for a traditional, passive wifey, or his womanising.
She is challenging, and more than a force to be reckoned with, happy to join the men doing various "manly" things like hunting and shooting.
Ashley played Olivia in Netflix hit Sex Education, one of the rich kids – the "untouchables" – at school.
Her Bridgerton character was originally Kate Sheffield in Quinn's novel, but in Netflix's multicultural adaptation, she and her family are of Indian descent.
In contrast, sister Edwina, played by Chandran, is sweet, good and the perfect debutante, but still very much uncompromising in her efforts to find true love. The young actress is an Oxford graduate and relatively new to the business, appearing in the spy series Alex Rider.
Will Lady Whistledown get found out?
“Dearest gentle reader, did you miss me?” purrs our narrator (voiced by Julie Andrews, 86) as the trailer opens. It's clear we did.
But thankfully, despite a prolonged hiatus, Lady Whistledown is back and with an appetite for gossip as rampant as the sex lives of her co-stars. "I've been sharpening my knives. For all of you," she warns.
At the end of series one we, the audience, discovered the mystery gossip girl was in fact Penelope – the only member of the Featherington family with any brains.
It doesn't look like any character has twigged yet, and we see court and the Queen riveted by her latest gossip sheet. It also looks like she'll have plenty to go on…
Just as her best pal Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie, 32) unknowingly kept her up to speed with the Hastings' soap opera, she'll no doubt do the same with her brother's.
Will ambitious Eloise marry?
The coolest Bridgerton by far, Eloise wasn't much keen on attending court, getting married off and spending her life in the parlour.
After marrying off Daphne so successfully, her mum managed to get her scrubbed up and ready for court by the end of series one.
But the trailer shows her having fun at the races with her brothers, hinting she still holds her fun-loving streak dear.
Will the ambitious sister settle for an arranged marriage and conventional life, or push for a freer future? Will she be allowed the latter? And will she discover her pal is Lady Whistledown?
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