The show-stopping Regency-era romantic drama Bridgerton has been bringing fans steamy romances since the show first debuted on Netflix back in 2020. However, all of the main love stories on the series to date have been between heterosexual couples, a flaw that even Bridgerton stars such as queer actor James Phoon and Irish actress Nicola Coughlan, have called out in the past. 

As the first four episodes of the third season of Bridgerton dropped on Netflix last night (May 16), the series is getting plenty of buzz, prompting show-runner Jess Bronwell, who recently took over the role from creator Chris Van Dusen, to tease potential queer storylines in future seasons. 

When discussing the possibility of queer love stories with Refinery29, Bronwell said “Yeah, absolutely.”

“I think this is a show about the many ways in which people love. So it only feels right to show all the ways in which people love, including queer love. So we are exploring queer love stories across the next couple of seasons,” Bronwell added. 

“How exactly it plays out over this season and the next couple seasons, I can’t say specifically, but I will say I’m excited for fans to see that,” Bronwell concluded.

While the show-runner did not divulge which Bridgerton characters might be included in these future queer storylines, several of the series’ own actors have been clamouring for a more inclusive Bridgerton for a while now. Among them is Irish actress Nicola Coughlan.

Coughlan, who rose to fame following her appearance as the ‘wee lesbian’ Clare Devlin on the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls, was later cast as Penelope Featherington on the first season of Bridgerton in 2020, and is now the star of the show’s third season.

“I think there’s so much space there for queer love stories and I think all love stories deserve to be celebrated,” Coughlan said. “I hope in time we get a leading queer love story in this show.”

Coughlan is joined in her hopes by openly gay Bridgerton actor Jonathan Bailey. 

Bailey, who has been a beacon for queer representation thanks to his roles in series like Fellow Travellers, told Bustle in 2023: “There’s so much that Bridgerton has achieved in storytelling, and there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that with the brilliance of Shondaland, everyone’s going to see themselves in the story at some point”.

While Bailey is openly gay, his character in the series, Anthony Bridgerton, is not, something that Bridgerton newcomer James Phoon can understand. 

Phoon, who joined the show’s third season as Harry Dankworth, the hapless husband of Bessie Carter’s Prudence Featherington, sat down with PinkNews to discuss his new role and Bronwell’s promise to introduce queer love stories to the world of Bridgerton. 

“I think Bridgerton does a lot of work in terms of putting this diversity at the forefront of its stories,” Phoon said. “Although it’s in fictional Britain, and the representation we see isn’t exactly the way that Britain was in the 1800s, these people did exist in terms of people of different races, people of different gender identities, people of different sexualities.

“Just because we haven’t heard about them before, and because the story and the spotlight hasn’t been on them, it doesn’t mean they didn’t exist, it just means we didn’t know about them. I think that’s really important.”

The first four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3 are available to stream now on Netflix, with the second part of the series set to follow on June 13. Check out the full trailer for Season 3 below.