Bridgerton is inching closer and closer to Eloise’s love story, but will the Netflix series deviate from who she marries in the books? Fans certainly hope so, and they’re rooting for it to be season 2’s Theo Sharpe… but why isn’t he in season 3?

Theo, played by Calam Lynch, was a brand new addition for Bridgerton season 2 and doesn’t exist in the books. He works at the print shop where Penelope goes to get her Lady Whistledown scandal sheets printed and ends up meeting Eloise as she investigates Whistledown’s identity.

The two strike up a friendship and grow closer through their shared interests and beliefs. Their relationship then turns into something unexpectedly romantic, but it all comes crumbling down at the end of the season.

As of season 3 episode 4, Theo is nowhere to be seen and Eloise seems too preoccupied with her new friendship with Cressida and her fractured friendship with Penelope to dwell on what happened.

But will Theo return in Bridgerton season 3 part 2? Calam’s previous interviews might hint that there still may be a future for Eloise and Theo yet…

Is Theo in the Bridgerton books? Do Theo and Eloise end up together?

Theo is not actually in the Bridgerton books so we have no idea what the future might look for his character. And while there’s no clear hints that Theo will pop back up just yet, Calam Lynch has raised hopes that we may see our fave printers assistant back in the ton at some point.

Back in July 2022, Calam spoke to IrelandAM about whether or not Theo would be in season 3. Speaking about the possibility of Theo and Eloise reuniting, he said: “It’s really difficult to say. I think it works both ways for our storyline. It could be self-contained and they could sadly never see each other again. Or it could work that they could end up together.”

“I have real faith in the people at Shondaland, they know their characters super well. I think they’ll do the right thing.”

When asked whether he’ll be in season 3, Calam added: “The new showrunner Jess Brownell, she’ll have things to tell you about that soon but I can’t tell you anything about that.”

He was very adamant that he did not say yes or no to that question, but fans have since spotted another clue that could hint at his return.

Is Theo in Bridgerton season 3? What happened to his character?

Well, we’ve only seen four out of the eight episodes in season 3 so Theo might still pop up again… But we’ll have to wait and see about that. At the moment, it doesn’t appear to make any sense to the storylines.

Theo is not in season 3 so far because Lady Whistledown no longer uses his shop to print her scandal sheets. After Penelope discovered that Eloise was very close to uncovering her identity, she took her business elsewhere.

Theo’s friendship and budding romance with Eloise also broke down at the end of the season after Theo became the subject of unwanted scrutiny and attention due to Eloise’s Whistledown investigation. They shared an emotional goodbye, despite neither of them wanting to, with Eloise saying that she did not want Theo to face any possible consequences.

At the end of season 2, Lady Whistledown (Penelope) also exposes Eloise’s unchaperoned (!!) meetings with “political radicals” to the entire ton in a bid to protect Eloise from any Whistledown speculation.

Theo’s whereabouts are not mentioned in season 3 part 1. It’s also unclear if he’s still working at the same printers, or if he moved away following the Whistledown drama.

In two Bridgerton season 3 promotional posts from December 2023 and February 2024, Independent Talent Group tagged Calam alongside a handful of other actors on the show including Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton) and Martins Imhangbe (Will Mondrich).

It’s completely possible that they just tagged the talent who have acted on the show in this new season and in the past rather than implying that they’ll all be in season 3, but that hasn’t stopped fans from theorising about Calam’s return…

We’ll have to wait and see whether he pops up in the second half of season 3! If not, here’s hoping they bring him back for Eloise’s season.