Though the 2025 TV schedule hasn’t exactly been light on historical drama or romance, one thing that fans with a Netflix subscription won’t get is the upcoming Bridgerton Season 4. The beloved Regency romance takes an unfortunately long time to film and get ready for all of us eager viewers, but we do at least know plenty about the new season, including the fact that Mr. Slutty Little Glasses himself, Anthony Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey, will return. He actually just compared filming the series to a debutante ball, and I totally get where he’s coming from.
How Did Jonathan Bailey Compare Filming Bridgerton To A Real Debutante Ball?
Jonathan Bailey has turned into a major movie star since he led Season 2 of Bridgerton, and the Jurassic World: Rebirth actor has lots coming up, including Wicked: For Good (where fans can see intriguing parallels between Fiyero and Anthony) and the fourth season of the streaming hit that made him famous. While we’re still quite far from the premiere of Bridgerton Season 4, Bailey did just make a comparison where he equated the filming of the beloved show to an actual debutante ball, as he told Time:
What an amazing thing to experience every couple of years, one of your siblings go through this, you know, amazing creative process, first and foremost, of being able to tell an amazing love story. But then, you know, have the Netflix effect and literally, it sort of always feels like a meta sort of debutante ball.
I never would have thought of it like this, but he’s totally right, isn’t he? One of the special things about the fiery romance is how they basically stick to the premise of the Bridgerton books, and put the main focus on one sibling as they fall in love each season. This has meant that, every couple of years, the show essentially has new stars who are then thrust into a very bright spotlight as they film.
On top of that, as Bailey noted, once filming is done and everything is finally ready to go, the new leads (Season 4 will focus on Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha’s characters, Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek) then deal with “the Netflix effect” and have several months of whirlwind publicity focused on them. And, this does serve as sort of a debutante-esque introduction to Hollywood “society,” especially for any newcomers to the drama, like Ha.
It’s so lucky that as the seasons go on, the cast has vets like Bailey to lean on when the time comes. Even though he won’t be in the fourth season as much as fans might like, he’ll always be around for his fellow co-stars, and I’ll be surprised if we don’t hear more about his work on the new episodes as we get closer to the premiere.