Bridgerton boss promises “drama definitely notches up” in season 3 part 2

Many fans have already torn through the first part of Bridgerton season 3 and after the breathy sexual tension of that final episode, part 2 can't come soon enough. But it'll all be worth the wait, according to showrunner Jess Brownell.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about what we can expect in part 2, she revealed: “The drama definitely notches up in the back half."

She continued: "I think Penelope’s secret is weighing really heavily over her and I think you’re also going to see a lot more romance in the back half. You know, Pen and Colin are figuring things out and there’s some time to just live in that for a bit.”

The last we saw of Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton) was after they finally kissed in the back of a carriage, only to wind up parked in front of the Bridgerton household. Colin surprises Penelope by asking for her hand in marriage and that, dear reader, is where it all left off.

But why on earth has the season been split in half? After all, since debuting on Netflix back in 2020, this is the first time that a season of Bridgerton has been cut in half.

Posing the question to Brownell, she told us: "So actually, we had finished writing the season and thought that it was going to air straight through and Netflix approached us and asked if we’d be willing to split it at the mid-point and we were excited about that.

"Because, as you said, there’s a really big moment at the end of episode 4 and it’s a natural point I think to let people regroup and speculate about what’s to come."

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As of now, we'll just have to wait and see what becomes of Colin and Penelope in the second half of season 3 but something tells us that Colin's sister and Penelope's former bestie Eloise (Claudia Jessie) won't be too pleased – especially because she knows all about Penelope's double life as Lady Whistledown.

Despite previously vowing to stop publishing her anonymous pamphlet, season 3 sees Lady Whistledown back in the thick of everything and continuing to publish damning observations about those in the Ton, Colin included.

Chatting to RadioTimes.com more about that Whistledown thread throughout season 3, Newton revealed: "It’s really interesting because Colin kind of pretends that he’s not directly affected by the things that are said about him by Whistledown, but we all see through that.

"You can see that he is affected, it’s also the people he’s most closest to in his life that are directly affected. So, if anything, out of anyone in the ton, he's the one that’s most frustrated.

"As much as he pretends he’s not, he’s most frustrated at her, which we always say, that underlying storyline which is most interesting. Because it couldn’t be a bigger obstacle to overcome between the two of them.”

Bridgerton season 3 part 1 is now available to stream on Netflix, part 2 will then be released on Thursday 13th June. Seasons 1 and 2 are also streaming now on Netflix. You can buy the Bridgerton book series on Amazon.

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