The return of one couple for Bridgerton season 4 is teased by showrunner Jess Brownell. Bridgerton season 3 recently wrapped up its run on Netflix, where it was met with positive reviews and high viewership numbers on the Netflix charts. The Bridgerton season 3 ending leaves a lot of questions still to be answered, which the show will luckily have the opportunity to do in the already-slated Bridgerton season 4.

Speaking with Variety, Brownell addresses whether Kate and Anthony will return for Bridgerton season 4. According to the creative, the return of the couple is far from certain as it will “be dependent on a lot of factors.” Said factors include how much story time the “main couples” take up in Bridgerton season 4, and thus whether there will physically be enough run time to cover Kate and Anthony. Furthermore, Brownell reflected on the difficulty of stepping down to smaller roles when they may have other opportunities. Check out the full quote from Brownell below:

I mean, we absolutely hope to see more of them. But it’ll be dependent on a lot of factors. It’ll be dependent on how much story the main couples take up, and whether there is story room. It will be dependent on whether the actors are available. As you can imagine, when you have an actor step into a lead role on the show and really lead the main story, it’s difficult to ask them to give up a lot of exciting opportunities to play as more of a side character. So we try to be very respectful of our actors in terms of letting them go off and do other things. And it works perfectly fine for us, because of the nature of the show shifting focus. We always want to give our main couple that screen time. So we’ll see what happens. But I love those two, and I would always be happy to see more from them.

Evaluating The Likelihood of Kate and Anthony’s Return

In her quote, Brownell brings up the important point of Bridgerton‘s shifted focus in season 3. Of all the seasons of Bridgerton thus far, season 3 is by far the most Penelope-focused of the lot. Both in her Lady Whistledown plot and her plot with Colin, Penelope’s triumphs and foibles are a major player in Bridgerton season 3, forming the main arc of the season. Fans really appreciated this focus on Penelope, with the Penelope-Colin carriage scene getting particularly prominent fan attention.

Given the success of Bridgerton season 3, it would be difficult for the show to justify taking time away from Penelope in the fourth season. Audiences do like Anthony and Kate, who married off-screen in Bridgerton season 2, but the absolute fawning over Colin and Penelope is irresistible for a show writer. According to recent reports from Brownell, Bridgerton season 4 is close to done with the script-writing phase, making Brownell’s recent quote seem much more like a harbinger of doom for Anthony and Kate fans.

Brownell also brings up the point of wanting to be respectful to actors who may want to pursue other opportunities, which implies that such could be the case with either Simone Ashley, who plays Kate, or Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony. Bailey, for one, is having a busy year, as he was cast in Heartstopper and is also set to play Fiyero in Wicked. With Wicked: Part Two happening next year, Bailey is likely to be more tied up. Ashley may have more attention after her roles on Bridgerton and Sex Education, weakening her chances of returning to play Kate for Bridgerton season 4.