New 'Bridgerton' Season 4 Images Introduces Downstairs

Period costume escapist television has undergone a renaissance in the 2020s. Thanks to shows like Bridgerton and Sanditon, there's been a real movement in the last five years to be more honest about the past, with productions choosing to both write about Black history along with the typical tropes of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as being far more willing to consider diverse casting. However, one thing all these shows have in common, from The Gilded Age's Black middle-class characters to Hallmark's recent remake of Sense & Sensibility, is that none play serving-class characters who live and work exclusively below stairs. 

No one fantasizes about returning to the past to be a scullery maid. (My own grandmother worked as a Daisy-type underage servant in a big house when she was a teenager in the 1920s; it was, in her words, "not pleasant.") When these fantasies do crop up, it's always in a Cinderella-type story, where rich, powerful men swoop in and save the day, either walking away from society or simply forcing society to accept their new partner by sheer force of being wealthy, white, and male. The same is true for period dramas; most people do not tune in to see the adventures of the servants; they want the Lady Marys and Countess Violets, and they want them dressed fabulously and ignorant of such things as weekends.

Bridgerton has been facing this issue since it launched — book readers know the third novel (Benedict's) is a Cinderella riff where he does not realize the housemaid and the "lady in silver" are one and the same and thinks he can just slake his lust over the latter with the former, who he assumes will be all too happy to climb out of poverty and live a life of luxury in exchange for her body. 

Not exactly romantic.

One assumes Bridgerton will do its best to make the trope, which remains popular, work for a modern audience. However, there are pitfalls it will need to avoid, and it's already obviously walking straight into the first one: using this as a way to "explore" the world of below-stairs.

No one wants to explore below stairs. Downton Abbey was an outlier in that sense, with James Fellowes' deeply conservative, paternalistic view of the working class. It wasn't as obvious in the series as it is in the first film, simply because the movie condensed things down to two hours, but everything about the conception of Downstairs in Season 1, from Barrow and O'Brien as the "wicked" characters because they weren't glowing with pastoral joy at working for a dude who can't manage his money to the very chaste worship of Carson for Lady Mary is... well, it's not really something Fellowes wants anyone to think too hard about. 

Multiple period dramas attempted to replicate the "upstairs/downstairs" format in the wake of Downton's success. Still, every one of them, from Victoria's sad attempts at being "real" with servants who steal stuff (and the Queen is somehow fine with) to the just god-awful Beecham House, have found that no one cares about the servant characters and wound up cutting them out, if not entirely out. Even Fellowes' own follow-ups, Belgravia and The Gilded Age, haven't been able to recreate that balance of magic. (To be fair, The Gilded Age's problem is that there are too many households, more than the actual upstairs/downstairs of it all.)

Now, Bridgerton does have some leeway that other series do not. Despite some half-baked efforts to make a logical historical reason to diversify the landed gentry in the U.K. (none of which take advantage of the actual drama such a thing would have created), it is an out-and-out fantasy. Because of this, the series can take advantage of some of the suspension of disbelief that Downton Abbey used to its advantage so well and create a world where the servants are frolicking peasants, all living happily under the watchful eye of its Queen.

This is also not Season 1; the production is not trying to introduce the servant class simultaneously with the landed gentry. Upstairs is well-established by now, having had an entire trilogy to itself. Also, though Bridgerton has never spent very long with any of them, it does have multiple characters who are not born to wealth, from gossip-mongering Brimsley (Hugh Sachs) with the Queen, the faithful Varley (Lorraine Ashbourne) at the Featheringtons, Siena Rosso (Sabrina Bartlett), Anthony's Opera Singer in Season 1, and Mme Delacroix (Kathryn Drysdale), who has filled spots from Benedict's bed to Penelope's cheerleader. 

Heck, the Mondrich family has spent three seasons working their way from merchants to titles. Hopefully, Bridgerton can do the same for Sophie.

Season 4 will rotate Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton to the forefront, with Yerin Ha as Sophie. The show will also see the return of the Bridgerton clan (once again save Daphne and Simon), including Ruth Gemmell as matriarch Lady Violet; Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley as the Viscount & Viscountess Anthony and Kate Bridgerton; Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan as Colin & Penelope Bridgerton; Victor Alli and Hannah Dodd and as Lord John and Lady Francesca Sterling, plus the still-unmarried siblings Claudia Jessie as Eloise, Will Tilston as Gregory, and Florence Hunt as Hyacinth. 

Other cast members returning for Season 4 include Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury), Daniel Francis (Marcus Anderson), Polly Walker (Portia Featherington), Lorraine Ashbourne (Mrs. Varley), Harriet Cains (Philipa Featherington-Finch), Lorn Macdonald (Albion Finch), Bessie Carter (Prudence Featherington-Dankworth), James Phoon (Harry Dankworth), Jessica Madsen (Cressida Cowper), Masali Baduza (Michaela Stirling) Martins Imhangbe (Will Mondrich), and Julie Andrews (the Voice of Lady Whistledown). Also, Sophie Lamont, who has merely been "Bridgerton Maid" for the last three seasons, will get a name, Celia, and a speaking role.

The new cast for the new season includes Katie Leung (Annika) as Lady Araminta Gun, along with Michelle Mao (Goosebumps) and Isabella Wei (1899) as Rosamund and Posy Li. Downstairs will also introduce Oli Higginson (Julia), Geraldine Alexander (The Child in Time), and Gracie McGonigal (The Power) as part of the downstairs crew. 

Here's the Season 4 logline:

The fourth season of Bridgerton turns its focus to bohemian second son Benedict. Despite his elder and younger brothers both being happily married, Benedict is loath to settle down -- until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother's masquerade ball.

Season 4 will once again run eight episodes, with Jess Brownell as showrunner and lead writer, and Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Tom Verica, and Chris Van Dusen serving as executive producers. 

Bridgerton Season 4 is expected to arrive in 2026. Bridgerton Seasons 1 through 3 and the Queen Charlotte spinoff are streaming on Netflix.