Chris van Dusen, the Bridgerton showrunner, has given an in depth interview to Collider and suggested we might get as many as eight seasons of the show

Quick reprise. Bridgerton season 1 centres on the romance between the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), as well as numerous other characters from the Bridgerton family. As we’ve reported elsewhere, the show has been a success, despite only being released Christmas Day. A second season announcement must, we feel, be a formality. But why stop there? What about season three; four and so forth? Is it possible?

The Bridgerton clan

As we noted in our feature piece on Bridgerton, the saga is the creation of writer Julia Quinn and all her books are available to buy. You can see the immediate family tree for the family on her website, here. WARNING — includes big spoilers for future marriages. Mother Violet Bridgerton had four children (named in alphabetical order by birth): Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory and Hyacinth. Apart from Daphne, season 1 gave both Eloise and Anthony plenty to do, as well as Colin, and to a lesser extent Benedict. The youngest two were ever-present, but as children, not yet eligible for marriage. Francesca we saw very little of.

The arithmetic is simple: eight children, eight series. As Julia Quinn’s website shows, they were each the focus of eight separate books with Daphne’s story actually being the fourth book, The Duke and I. This means we could well have eight different seasons, and we also don’t know which order they might be filmed.

What else would they be about?

While we thoroughly enjoyed Bridgerton season 1, we can’t imagine seven variations would be as gripping. Switching to a brother would change the dynamic, but this trick can only be done once. Eloise was notably anti the traditional role of women, so her path to marriage would be different (confession — we’ve not read the novels. Yet.)

Back to the interview with the Bridgerton showrunner (which you can read here), there’s a lot of discussion on diversity and representation. He’s worked with historians to being validity to some of the show’s assumptions, so we can imagine more historic relevance in future seasons. It’s clear there’s potential for each of the siblings to be a focus, but it may need work. We also note (from the family tree above) some are married more than once, so other stories there as well.

What is likely?

While we are sure Netflix would be more than happy with eight seasons, we feel the constrictions of production, and actors ageing, will mean some love stories overlap. Could a season sustain two big marriages? Well, we had one in episode five of eight this time, so certainly possible (perhaps a joint wedding, though probably not true enough to the books?) A quick perusal of the books’ blurbs gives (with spoilers) a sense of how each of Violet’s children is wed, but for now we would imagine predicting beyond season three or four might be ambitious. If December 25 2027 does bring season eight we won’t complain though!