Love surprises Benedict in ‘Bridgerton’ S4 – Gadget

Bridgerton season 4 shifts the highlight to Benedict, the household’s second-eldest son, unfolding a love story for which he by no means deliberate.

Part one of many romance collection, set in a lavish Regency-era world, is streaming on Netflix from right this moment (29 January 2026). Part two releases on 26 February.

The season opens at a grand masquerade ball, the place Benedict’s journey is about in movement. There, he notices a mysterious determine recognized solely because the Lady in Silver. Their transient connection leaves an enduring impression, although Benedict stays unaware that she is Sophie Baek, a younger girl whose life exists far past the glittering confines of the ballroom.

“This season is a very different trajectory,” showrunner Jess Brownell informed Tudum, Netflix’s companion website. “Benedict lives in a fantasy world. Sophie lives in a hard reality. You have two characters who are at opposite ends of a pole, and rather than either of them needing to get all the way to the other side, they both need to travel to the middle. Between fantasy and reality, true love lies in the middle — neither one creates the circumstances for romance to bloom. You have to embrace a little bit of both.”

Unlike his siblings, Benedict has resisted the stress to marry, whilst the remainder of the Bridgerton household settles into home life. His fascination with the Lady in Silver disrupts that certainty, sending him on a search that attracts him deeper into London society with reluctant assist from his sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie).

What Benedict doesn’t realise is that the lady he’s looking for is already a part of his world. Sophie is a resourceful maid working beneath the watchful eye of Araminta Gun (Katie Leung), balancing her personal goals with the constraints of her place. As probability reunites Benedict and Sophie, he’s caught between the idealised picture he can’t neglect and the truth he struggles to just accept.

That rigidity lies on the coronary heart of the season, testing whether or not Benedict can reconcile fantasy with fact earlier than the connection between them slips away.

Luke Thompson, who performs Benedict, mentioned: “You remember being told those stories as a child — the magic and the romance of them. It’s really exciting to have that woven into the world that we know of Bridgerton. It’s such a great story, but it’s also, I hope, really relatable.”

Yerin Ha, who performs Sophie Baek, mentioned: “What drew me to Sophie was that she immediately has obstacles — something that she constantly has to overcome. Whether it’s this battle around social status or trying to hide her feelings from Benedict.”

The new season is impressed by the third guide in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton collection, An Offer from a Gentleman.

“It’s always really nice to get inside the author’s head to see how they pictured a certain character or events that trigger certain emotions. In the book, Sophie has a sassy-ness to her, but there’s also a vulnerable side and a fragility. I tried hard to bring that into the series.” 

Brownell mentioned: “Sophie in season four is very similar to the Sophie in Julia Quinn’s book. Sophie is not a normal damsel in distress in the book, nor is she in our season. She’s resourceful and resilient. She’s a chess player, she’s a survivalist. Sometimes that works against her because it’s hard to get out of survival mode and allow herself to embrace love or playfulness or lightness or joy. Fortunately, those are things Benedict Bridgerton is very good at.”

New and returning characters

As with earlier seasons, we will anticipate to see some new characters spinning across the Bridgerton ballroom, together with: 

• Lady Araminta Gun, performed byKatie Leung. Twice-married and twice-widowed, Araminta has two daughters debuting on the wedding mart this season and he or she’s feeling the stress to get at the least one in every of her women married off. Fabulous, discerning, and blunt, Araminta doesn’t reply properly when something — or anybody — threatens her standing in society. 
• Rosamund Li, performed by Michelle Mao. Beautiful, useless, and desirous to please her mom, Rosamund is Araminta’s eldest daughter and most prized possession. Rosamund units her sights on Benedict this social season. And, similar to her mom, Rosamund is set to get what she needs.
• Posy Li, performed by Isabella Wei. Rosamund’s youthful, kinder sister can also be debuting this 12 months. But Araminta not often places the highlight on her second baby. Posy’s chatty, overly pleasant demeanor usually has her placing her foot in her mouth. 

“While Rosamund has become her mother’s mini-me — a marriage mart pro chess player — Posy is dreamy and often unserious, much to her mother’s disapproval,” Brownell informed Tudum. “Araminta and Rosamund are so focused on their own goals that, frankly, the Bridgertons don’t register much for them at first, beyond the fact that Benedict proves to be quite the catch this season.”

And, though they aren’t new arrivals in Mayfair, you’ll be able to anticipate to see extra of Emma Naomi (Alice Mondrich) and Hugh Sachs (Brimsley).

The solid consists of:

• Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton.
• Simone Ashley as Kate Bridgerton.
• Victor Alli as John Stirling.
• Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury.
• Julie Andrews as Lady Whistledown.
• Lorraine Ashbourne as Mrs Varley.
• Masali Baduza as Michaela Stirling.
• Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Bridgerton.
• Hannah Dodd as Francesca Stirling.
• Daniel Francis as Lord Marcus Anderson.
• Ruth Gemmell as Violet Bridgerton.
• Florence Hunt as Hyacinth Bridgerton.
• Martins Imhangbe as Will Mondrich.
• Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton.
• Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte.
• Will Tilston as Gregory Bridgerton.
• Polly Walker as Portia Featherington.