'Bridgerton' Season 2 Will Premiere This Spring

Netflix gave Bridgerton fans the best Christmas gift of all this year: An official premiere date for Season 2. (And one that's so much sooner than most of us likely expected!)

The first season of Bridgerton dropped on Christmas Day in 2020, a colorful, confectionary swirl of romance and anachronistic period costumes that arrived precisely when we most needed it to brighten up the depths of our first COVID-19 winter. And though the series' second season finished filming in late November, most of us (read: me) expected Netflix would hold the drama until later in 2022, the time of year when it tends to drop its biggest releases. But, sometimes it's a lovely thing to be completely wrong.

Bridgerton Season 2 will officially premiere on Friday, March 25, 2022, basically guaranteeing that period drama fans everywhere are going to be having the time of their lives this spring. (Starz mainstay Outlander and PBS hit Sanditon will also both return in March.) The Bridgerton Season 2 premiere date was announced on Christmas Day - the anniversary of the series' first season debut - by way of a special video featuring multiple cast members.

Based on the bestselling series of novels by Julia Quinn, the first season of Bridgerton was a runaway hit for Netflix, notching record viewing numbers and becoming its most-watched series ever. (At least, until Squid Game came along.) But where the first season followed the love story of eldest Bridgerton daughter Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Rege-Jean Page), the handsome Duke of Hastings, its second will focus on eldest son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his romance with newcomer Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Anthony was something of an antagonist in the series' first season - wildly overprotective of Daphne and resistant to her match with Simon. Therefore, Bridgerton Season 2 is going to have to do some work to remake him as a romantic leading man we can all root for. Enter Kate, an overprotective older sibling herself, and one who doesn't much like the thought of Anthony attempting to court her sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran), recently named the season's new incomparable. Sharp-tongued banter, love, and presumably, some steamy scenes, will naturally ensue.  (We've already seen a glimpse of her telling him about himself, which certainly hints at an exciting flirtation to come. )

According to the official Netflix description, Kate is “a smart, headstrong young woman who suffers no fools — Anthony Bridgerton very much included." However, unlike in The Viscount Who Loved Me, the novel upon which this season is based, Kate is not a longtime wallflower of the London social scene, but a newcomer whose family hails from India, a twist that mirrors the interesting and inclusive storytelling decisions that the series made last season with the Basset clan.

Bridgerton Season 2 will premiere on March 25, 2022. Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.