Cue squeals heard around the ton after Netflix announced that Benedict Bridgerton will anchor the hit Netflix series’s fourth season.
“Welcome to the marriage mart, Benedict,” the streamer’s official announcement video, posted July 23, reads. In the video, actor Luke Thompson is seen with a Bridgerton script in hand as a person off-camera hands him a suit, saying, “It’s for the masquerade ball.”
Like Julia Quinn’s book series upon which the show is based, each season of the Shonda Rhimes show tells the story of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings entering the marriage mart and finding his or her love match. After Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington finally made the much-anticipated transition from friends to lovers in Season 3, fans were anxiously waiting to find out which sibling would be next. Eloise, Benedict, and Francesca were all presented as possibilities in the season finale, but many fans were holding out hope that it would be Benedict, who has long been a fan favorite.
“He’s a really stand-out character. He’s very charismatic and just really funny onscreen to watch,” says fan Bethany Datuin. Benedict has been her favorite character since the show premiered. As an English major, she also loves that he’s more artistic than his brothers and enjoys seeing how kind he is to all his siblings, especially the three youngest, Eloise, Gregory and Hyacinth.
Young adult author Arabella Rosier agrees and is thrilled that it’s finally Benedict’s turn to find his love match after being the rake of Season 3.
“Having to endure all of Benedict’s side pieces in Season 3…” reads the text at the beginning of Rosier’s viral TikTok video in which she’s sitting on the couch, giving her TV side-eye before appearing to levitate off the cushions, revitalized with the hope that Benedict’s love story will be next. Many fans felt similarly, as evidenced by the more than 4 million views the video has amassed.
One reason Datuin thinks Benedict is so popular with fans is because he’s really the glue of the Bridgerton family, easing tension and adding a depth of understanding to every scene. He may also prove to be the glue of the Bridgerton fandom, uniting fans in their excitement for him to finally meet his “lady in silver.”
Beth Thorne, owner of The Cool Table, a pop culture website and podcast, watched the fandom splinter in Season 3 when it was revealed that Francesca’s future love interest, Michael, is the female character Michaela in the show.
“I think that people want specifically their version of how things are meant to go … and they get on their sides and start fighting online because that’s what fandoms do, and it’s not very healthy and not very useful to the conversation, especially in this instance [when] there’s a lot of queer joy … about a sapphic love story in a very popular romance TV show,” she told Yahoo.
These divisions reminded Thorne of the tumultuous moment in Season 2 when fans thought the show was going to turn Anthony’s season into a love triangle, which doesn’t exist in the books. However, she thinks some fans’ reactions to the LGBTQ plots this season took a darker turn from desire for book loyalty to homophobia.
Other fans, like content creator Simone Umba, think these departures from the books are good for the series and have aided its widespread popularity. She expects the fourth season to modernize and improve Benedict’s story in the same way it has for every male character.
“[Benedict’s] story is interesting because of him being [revealed to be] pansexual [in Season 3], and [fans can’t wait to see] how that’s going to be explored in the upcoming season,” Umba told Yahoo.
Unfortunately, viewers will most likely have to wait to see Benedict become Bridgerton’s leading man, a fact that Rosier thinks is ironic. In the book, Benedict has to wait two years between meeting his “lady in silver” at the ball and uncovering her identity.
“[Netflix] is making us wait, just like he had to,” Rosier says.
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