Dearest gentle reader, we’ve officially hit the part of the Bridgerton cycle where everyone’s finished sobbing over Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha) and is now feral over one question: which Bridgerton sibling will be the season five focus: Eloise (Claudia Jesse) or Francesca (Hannah Dodd)?
Luckily for you, I have done all the digging to find out which lucky lady could be the diamond of the season.
Which sibling will season five of Bridgerton focus on?
Right now, Netflix hasn’t confirmed which sibling will lead season five, but the field has basically narrowed to two girlies: headstrong Eloise, or the already-married Francesca. Showrunner Jess Brownell turned it into a bit, rocking white pocket squares embroidered with “E” and “F” at the season four premiere and telling Deadline, “Both characters with the initials on my pocket squares will get seasons in five and in six. In what order? I can’t say.”
Book-wise, Eloise is technically next, with To Sir Phillip, With Love the fifth book in Julia Quinn’s series, while the Francesca-focused When He Was Wicked is sixth. However, the show has messed with the book order before, bringing Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin’s (Luke Newton) season ahead of Benedicts. The timeline is more vibes-based than canon when it comes to decision-making.
However, given Francesca’s wedding to Lord John Stirling (Victor Alli) and Michaela’s (Masali Baduza) entrance are already on screen, some fans think that puts her slightly ahead in the race, even though Eloise’s book comes first.
What is the plot for the next season of Bridgerton?
Major are spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned x x.
If season five follows the books and focuses on Eloise, it will likely adapt To Sir Phillip, With Love, which sees Eloise starting a correspondence with widower Sir Phillip Crane (Chris Fulton) after the death of his wife, Marina (Ruby Barker), and slowly turning their letters into a full-blown romance.
TLDR: After Marina dies Eloise writes to Phillip to offer condolences, only to find herself falling for him and his children as she steps into a new life.
We’ve actually met Marina before, if you remember that whole ‘Colin kicking a tantrum cause she didn’t actually love him’ moment in the first few seasons.
If the show jumps to Francesca instead, it’ll be building on the book When He Was Wicked, where Francesca’s seemingly idyllic marriage to John Stirling ends in tragedy when he dies young. She eventually falls in love with his cousin Michael, who in Netflix’s version is gender-swapped to be Michaela.
“It’s so important to tell this story,” Dodd told PEDESTRIAN.TV of Francesca and Michaela’s storyline ahead of season four’s release.
“I just think Bridgerton is a show that celebrates people and love, and everybody deserves the chance to see their love story on screen. So we’re so excited. I’m so honoured to get to tell that story at some point. So yeah, over here it’s all celebrations.”
As showrunner, Brownwell is also keen to bring a queer romance to the forefront. “To have sexuality be inclusive as well was really important to me,” she told P.TV, describing Bridgerton as “inclusive romantic fantasy”.
“[I’m] really excited to have one of our main lead storylines be a queer storyline in the future,” she said.
Eloise’s future, meanwhile, is a bit more open-ended. She’s spent four seasons rejecting the marriage market as her only future. “She’s sort of like, ‘Oh my God, I’m a genius. I’ve come up with an incredible idea. I’ll just self-declare that I’m on the shelf’,” Jesse told P.TV ahead of season four. “Like it’s a great idea, props to her. She’s trying her best.”
As for what her Bridgerton future holds, Jesse was coy. “I don’t know what she’s gonna do next season,” she said. “She’s like, fire breathing? I’m just gonna become a fire breather.”
So let’s just say we have lots to look forward to!
Who will be cast in next season’s Bridgerton?
Casting hasn’t been locked publicly yet, but the broad strokes are already there. Whichever sibling leads, Bridgerton tends to keep its ensemble around even as couples rotate through centre stage, with Nicola Coughlan, Luke Newton, Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Claudia Jessie, Hannah Dodd, Adjoa Andoh, Golda Rosheuvel, Florence Hunt, Will Tilston, Ruth Gemmell, and Lady Whistledown narrator Julie Andrews all expected to return in some capacity in future seasons.
Hopefully Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley continue to make cameos in future seasons and personally I’d love to see season one’s Phoebe Dynevor make a return. What has the OG diamond been up to???
Author Julia Quinn is also keeping one eye on the cast as the younger siblings grow up. Speaking to Us Weekly, she admitted, “I don’t necessarily know how they’re gonna spin it or write it, or what they’re going to keep and change.”
Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) and Gregory (Will Tilston), who were introduced as literal children in the early seasons, were around 10 and 12 when the story first kicked off, which is why fans have always wondered whether they’d eventually be aged up or swapped out.
“It takes a few years to film, so by the time we get to Hyacinth and Gregory, the actors are going to be well into their 20s. So I think it’ll probably be OK. Will it be weird that we knew them when they were 12? We see child stars grow up all the time,” assured Julia.
She also reflected on how strange it was for her to age them up in the novels: “As a writer, it was hard to write those two books at first. I really had to let them grow up in my mind a bit and that was hard for both of them. I was really glad it took several years, but even so, I can’t remember how much time passed in the writing.”
If we do end up seeing Eloise’s book come to life first, it is doubtful that Ruby Barker will return to revive her role as Marina. Barker told the LOAF Podcast in 2023 that she experienced “two psychotic breaks” during her time filming Bridgerton.
“Not a single person from Netflix, not a single person from Shondaland since I have had two psychotic breaks from that show have even contacted me or even emailed me to ask if I’m okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support. Nobody,” she said on the podcast.
You can watch the full interview here:
When is the release date for Bridgerton season five?
There’s no official release date yet, but the maths is not exactly optimistic. Season one of the show came out in December 2020, season two in March 2022, season three in May 2024, and season four in January 2026, which means we’re living with gaps of roughly 18–24 months between each instalment.
With season five set to start shooting in spring 2026 and post-production on Bridgerton historically taking a while thanks to all those string-quartet pop covers and CGI swan extras, we’ll most likely see the show again in a late 2027 or even early 2028 drop.
Netflix has already locked in the show’s future, with season six also officially confirmed, so we’re not just arguing about which sibling gets the next social season — we’re basically booked and busy all the way through to the end of the alphabet.
Until then, all we can really do is rewatch Benedict and Sophie’s masquerade madness and argue over which emotional disaster gets dibs: the fire-breathing letter writer or the traumatised newlywed. Can’t wait!
Bridgerton season four part two drops on Netflix on 26 February at 7pm AEDT so consider it your emotional support rewatch until the ton finally announces who’s up next.
The post Which Bridgerton Baddie Will Be The Main Character In Season 5? An Investigation appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
