The ton is abuzz with speculation about Bridgerton Season 2, which nears ever closer on the horizon to its return to 19th-century London (and Netflix) on March 25. With a little more than a month to go until its debut, stars Nicola Coughlan, Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran, Golda Rosheuvel and Bridgerton book series author Julia Quinn celebrated with a special virtual Valentine's Day event with fans from around the world.
Moderated by Tudum's own Ariana Romero, the Zoom panel saw the premiere of several exclusive clips, the official teaser trailer and a bevy of information about what to expect from the eight highly anticipated episodes. The new season sees marriage-averse Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) take an interest in the season’s newest diamond, Miss Edwina Sharma (Chandran) — though he'll get nowhere without the approval of her protective older sister, Kate (Ashley). Here's what Tudum learned from the event (and of course there will be spoilers, my dear).
Queen Charlotte got a royal neck brace for her wigs.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown — and the wigs. Golda Rosheuvel, who plays Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte, informs fans that for Season 2, production made her a custom brace to bear the weight of the queen’s wigs and support her neck during filming. “The amazing crew guys built me this thing,” she describes. “So it gets linked onto the chair, and I can lean back on it, and it comes around and I can just literally rest my chin. It’s really great. I was really chuffed about it.”
It’s official: Pall Mall is happening.
Worry no more, because we can officially confirm that a fan-favorite book scene is absolutely a part of the series. Take it from Quinn herself: "I'm so glad I can finally say it's coming — the Pall Mall scene is coming. For a while I wasn't allowed to say that it was actually in there. But what I would tell people was that 'Look, I'm a consultant, and I'm pretty hands off, but if there's no Pall Mall, I will just consult the heck out of that show.' But I'm happy to say it's there, and it's glorious." The scene is pivotal to Anthony and Kate's relationship in the book, establishing their dynamic as the ultra-competitive duo face off in a Bridgerton sibling-filled game of Pall Mall (think croquet but a little more cutthroat).
Anthony ever so kindly slid into Edwina’s DM’s prior to filming.
This season, we get to meet Edwina and Kate Sharma, who arrive from India to make their mark on the ton. The actors playing the Sharma sisters auditioned primarily via Zoom thanks to the pandemic and didn’t get a chance to meet most of the cast until filming began. But one cast member did reach out to Chandran before their chemistry read: capital “R” Rake himself, Jonathan Bailey. “One’s character is shown through little actions,” Chandran says. “Before my chemistry read with him, he just messaged me on Instagram to say good luck, not to worry and that he's rooting for me. Obviously, it's a really scary thing to join one of the biggest shows on TV, and for him to do such a kind gesture like that really speaks to his character and made me feel so comfortable going into it.” The viscount does know how to be a perfect gentleman, does he not?
Lady Whistledown is starting Bridgerton Season 2 with a bang.
Coughlan (who plays Penelope aka Lady Whistledown herself!) is quick to tease that after the big reveal of her character’s alter ego last season, viewers will take a peek “behind the curtain” of how Penelope pulls off her Lady Whistledown alias. “She’s coming into it with a bang,” the star says. “You get to find out how she’s achieving all this stuff, how she’s creating Lady Whistledown, the pamphlets, how she’s finding out all this gossip.” But at the same time, it’s also making her an adversary in some high places. “I think she frightens the queen a little bit,” Coughlan suggests. “Whistledown might be the main woman in charge of London really, maybe even more than the queen. The queen thinks she's got all this power and all the servants, but Whistledown is the one that’s making stuff happen.”
Eloise is officially out on the ton.
As arguably the most powerful person in the ton, Penelope knows with great power comes great responsibility — especially as her best friend Eloise (played by Claudia Jessie) doesn’t make Penelope’s job any easier when she finally succumbs to societal pressure and starts attending balls this season. “It definitely makes things more difficult for [Penelope/Lady Whistledown] with Eloise being on the scene because, you know, her business is sneaking off during the balls, and then you have little Eloise Bridgerton on your tail,” Coughlan says. “I personally love having Claudia, but Penelope maybe didn’t love it as much as Nicola.”
Is “Polin” finally happening?
Fortunately, Coughlan doesn’t leave fans hanging as to where we find “Polin,” aka Penelope and Colin, in Season 2. In the off-season, the characters have become literal “Pen” pals, as Colin’s been regaling the youngest Featherington with letters detailing his travels in Greece. “They have started to get to know each other a little bit more through writing,” Coughlan says. “And Penelope is a writer first and foremost, so that’s how she can express herself better.”
Even Julia Quinn didn't know who Lady Whistledown was.
Quinn confesses that she didn’t decide on the identity of the troublemaking columnist until she finished writing the first novel in the Bridgerton series, The Duke and I. “I wrote the entire first book without knowing who she was,” Quinn says. “At the end, I decided it would be Penelope, and then I frantically went back and read everything I’d done to make sure that I hadn’t placed her somewhere she couldn’t be.” And in case you were wondering, choosing Penelope as the character’s name — and thereby her nickname of “Pen” — was not purposeful, despite Pen using her pen as her greatest weapon. “That would have been really smart of me though,” Quinn quips.
