‘Bridgerton’ Showrunners Are Keeping Mum About Season 4, but Here’s What We Know

The Netflix series Bridgerton is currently enjoying a third season of unprecedented popularity, but some fans are already turning our attention to what comes next.

Season 3 follows Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington’s (Nicola Coughlan) story and is based on the fourth novel in author Julia Quinn’s series, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. The season offered up the first four episodes on May 16, 2024 and, after a month-long break, four more episodes on June 13, 2024. Netflix announced back in April 2021 that Bridgerton was renewed for a fourth season, but beyond that, showrunners are being typically tight-lipped with details.

Which story will be featured in season 4?

For season 3, showrunners chose to bypass Benedict’s story in the third novel, An Offer From a Gentleman, in favor of Colin and Penelope’s storyline from book four. Changing the order of the stories opened up a world of possibilities for future seasons, though series creator Shonda Rhimes told Variety, “I do have a very specific plan of where we go each season—which one is which.”

She also confirmed that writers “start seeding in the other siblings, and what’s going on with them, to push them to the next season.” We’ve seen the evidence of that “seeding” throughout season 3. Several new characters could easily be expanded and explored further in season 4, but which will they choose?

Based on the action in season 3, there are three viable choices for the next season’s action. Showrunners might go backwards and finally tell Benedict’s (Luke Thompson) story. They could choose to jump ahead to book five, To Sir Philip, With Love, which is Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) tale. Or they could move on to book six, When He Was Wicked, for Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) story. All of these storylines are teed up and ready to go, but our money is on Benedict!

When will season 4 come out?

Season 4’s new showrunner Jess Brownell recently told Refinery29 that the script is being written as we speak, so they definitely know the answer to which storyline we’ll be seeing play out onscreen next. “I can tell you that I know who it’s gonna be,” she said. “We are in the middle of writing it right now.”

The author also confirmed that she knows which Bridgerton sibling will get the spotlight in season 4, but she’s not telling, either. Speaking with PEOPLE, Quinn said, “I can’t say a word. I’ll get in so much trouble.”

“I do know, but I can’t say yes,” she added. In the same interview, Quinn also confirmed that Rhimes plans to make eight seasons, one for each Bridgerton book (and sibling). Huzzah!

When and where can we watch?

As for when the season will finally land on Netflix, we’ll need to summon all of our patience because quite frankly, nobody knows. The gap between the second and third seasons was nearly two years long, but that’s likely due to the creative arts strikes in 2023. We’re hopeful and optimistic that we’ll see season 4 debut in the spring of 2025. Fingers crossed!

“We actually don’t know when it’s gonna drop,” Brownell told Refinery29. “We’re still making sure that we write the best possible script that we can before we start production. But we’re really thrilled with what we’ve been working on. So hold out hope!”

Oh, we will! Seasons 1 through 3 are currently streaming on Netflix.