Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 is mere days away, but fans of the hit Netflix show have already been feverishly speculating what comes after Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin’s (Luke Newton) love story ends with a hopefully happily ever after. Will Bridgerton Season 4 finally adapt Benedict Bridgerton’s (Luke Thompson) book, An Offer from a Gentleman? Will Eloise (Claudia Jessie) finally start penning letters to Sir Phillip Crane (Chris Fulton), like she does in To Sir Phillip, With Love? And is the reason why we’ve already met John Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin (Victor Alli) because Francesca’s love story, When He Was Wicked, is next??

Obsessive Bridgerton fans who have read all of Julia Quinn’s books have been carefully combing for clues while watching the series and the cast’s extensive press duties and they have theories! A popular one, for instance, is that we suddenly learned that Lady Cowper’s (Joanna Bobin) first name is Araminta because it’s an Easter egg for a certain villainous stepmother in Benedict’s book. There have been rumors that we might meet future lead characters like Michael Stirling at a potential engagement party later this season or that Benedict might finally be beguiled by a mysterious lady in silver in the Bridgerton Season 3 finale.

Because Bridgerton has already been seeding future clues for Season 4 and beyond since Episode 1 — Hello, Marina Thompson! (Ruby Barker) — Decider asked current showrunner Jess Brownell how many of these Easter eggs were intentionally added to set up future seasons and how many, like, ahem, Araminta Cowper, are merely fan theories gone with.

“Okay,” Brownell said. “A little bit of both.”

Brownell revealed that “Francesca’s story, at least in this season is the main one that we are setting up for later down the line.”

“Francesca’s book, for those who are familiar, it takes place over a longer amount of years and it has more twists and turns. And so we felt like we wanted to start that story earlier so that we could play out more chapters of her book.”

John Stirling and Francesca Bridgerton in ‘Bridgerton’
Photo: Netflix
Brownell is in the unique position of inheriting showrunner responsibilities from Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen. His plan was to do eight seasons and it’s Brownell’s aspiration, as well. However, it sounds like the two showrunners might have a different idea of the order in which they want to tackle Julia Quinn’s beloved novels. After all, the biggest change Brownell seemingly made was moving up Colin and Penelope’s story to Season 3, which was originally anticipated to be Benedict’s season.

“I mean, if we’re allowed to do eight seasons, like we hope — I know what order I would like to go in through Season 8. Whether or not that will happen, I’m not the only person who gets to decide that,” Brownell said. “There are certain storylines that are set up in Seasons 1 and 2 by Chris Van Dusen. So, yeah, I would say I know where I want to go, but I don’t want to set up too much, too early because I just don’t want to burn through story too long.”

“Because I really want to have eight seasons worth of story to tell.”

You hear that, Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) and Gregory (Will Tilston) fans? The youngest Bridgertons might get to fall in love down the road, too!

Between Brownell’s comments to Decider that Francesca’s season will be “later down the line” and the fact that Luke Thompson and Claudia Jessie have been more front and center in recent press engagements — Thompson getting flustered at the suggestion his season’s next — we’re speculating that Bridgerton Season 4 is probably focused on Benedict or Eloise.

Brownell herself even teased to Decider, “I’m excited for people to see where we’re going with Benedict in the back half [of Bridgerton Season 3].”

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 premieres on Thursday, June 13.