We spoke with Bridgerton Season Three stars Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton at a premiere of the second half of the new season at the Light House Cinema, Dublin. Bridgerton Season Three – Part Two launches on Netflix on June 13th.
The first half of Bridgerton Season Three was released on Netflix on May 16th, 2024, scoring the largest debut in the series' history with over 41 million views in the first four days. The latest season follows Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton).
The synopsis for season three is as follows:
“Penelope Featherington (Coughlan) has given up on her crush on Colin Bridgerton (Newton) after hearing his harsh words last season. Now, she seeks a husband who will let her maintain her double life as Lady Whistledown. However, her lack of confidence leads to failed attempts in the marriage market.”
“Colin returns with a new look and swagger, only to find Penelope distant. To win back her friendship, Colin offers to mentor her in confidence, but soon questions if his feelings are purely platonic. Meanwhile, Penelope’s rift with Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and her growing social presence threatens to expose her secret identity.”
Netflix premiered the latter half of the season at a special red carpet event in the Light House Cinema on Thursday, June 6th. A great many fans gathered to watch Coughlan (Derry Girls) and Newton (The Lodge) walk the red carpet.
Bridgerton has established a tradition of switching the series’ focus each season, bringing supporting characters to the fore, and fleshing out their arcs. As a result, the leads of any given season may not feature as much in future seasons. For example, Phoebe Dynevor, who played season one lead Daphne, did not return for season three. On the red carpet, Coughlan discussed whether or not we’d see more of her character Penelope going forward:
“I’m definitely back for season four. I haven’t seen any scripts, but I’m excited for it to go onto the next love story because Luke (Newton) and I had such an incredible time filming it, and going around the world on this tour. We’ve been to Brazil, Australia, Toronto, New York. It’s been phenomenal. So no regrets, I feel like we gave it everything.”
Coughlan was recently cast in Love And War, an upcoming film from director Lisa Mulcahy and writer Elisabeth Gooch, both of whom won an IFTA earlier this year for their work on Lies We Tell. Based on true events, the film follows Irish woman Sarah O’Meara’s struggle in September 2011 to rescue her six-year-old daughter who was abducted by her father, and smuggled to his native Syria, during the country’s ongoing civil war.
We asked Coughlan what attracted her to the upcoming project:
“I think it’s sort of the same answer I always give, I always want to do something very different from the last thing. I adore Bridgerton, and it’s so much fun, but I thought ‘What’s the most anti-Bridgerton thing?’ and it feels like that.”
For many fans, the lavish period costumes are a big part of the appeal of Bridgerton. We spoke to Coughlan’s co-star Luke Newton about his relationship with the costume department as an actor, and whether he gets any input into this element of the production:
“The first fitting, they told me like a hundred stories about where my character had been, before I’d even seen a script. The team is just incredible, as much as it’d be amazing to give my opinion, I just don't even need to, because what they create is so detailed,it’s beyond anything I could imagine.”
“I have a really good relationship with the designers. I even texted one of them yesterday, I sent one of my looks from a future episode and I said ‘This is my favourite look of this arc, I’d love to explore more of that in the future’.”
Bridgerton Season Three – Part Two launches on Netflix on June 13th.
