Dear Readers, it is our distinguished pleasure to officially confirm the Viscount and the Viscountess Bridgerton, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) will return for Season 3 of the hit series Bridgerton.
Ashley shared the news exclusively with Deadline at a dinner celebrating South Asian culture hosted by Netflix in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Talented Indian American stars in attendance also included Kal Penn, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, Richa Moorjani, Sujata Day, Lilly Singh, Sophia Ali, and Anurima Bhargava.
“We’re going to be back! Kate and Anthony are just getting started,” she revealed. “We have the amazing Jess Brownell who is taking the lead as showrunner in Season 3. Season 2 there was a lot of push and pull between Kate and Anthony, there were complications with the family, and then they find each other towards the end. I think everything is just starting. I’d like to see Kate just let go a bit more and play more in Season 3 and kind of swim in that circle of love together. I think they both deserve it.”
Even though viewers are all about the intense love connection between Kate and Anthony, Ashley promises the Viscountess will thrive on her own.
“She’s in charge of the household now and she’s got big boots to put on. I think she can do it,” she said excitedly. “I want to keep that softness and vulnerability to Kate, for sure, and she can share that with Anthony. I’m just excited for her to have a home and to have a family. I’m excited to see her grow. I think I’d like to see Kate being much braver and less headstrong and more heart strong.”
Ashley is proud of how Season 2 wrapped its arms around this multilayered story focused on family, love, and strong women coming into their own, instead of it being a story about a man coming between two women. While on the surface it may seem that Kate and her sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) are competing for Anthony, Ashley says, “It’s more like three love stories are going on at once.”
“It’s not that at all. It’s very evident that Kate is just trying to protect her sister and if anything, she’s actually being dishonest with herself, therefore being dishonest with her family. She’s not afraid to own the fact that she has feelings about disappointing her family, to have that confrontation to let her family down because she’s put them first her whole life. I think a lot of women can relate to that. And I think it’s so brave of her to actually let that go and eventually after the mistake she makes to come forward. It was also very brave of her sister Edwina to come back together and set each other free,” Ashley said.
She continued, “It’s about the love story between the sisters, one between Kate and Anthony, and the love story of family. The Viscount and the Diamond are doing it all for their families and their duty.”
Ashley is also particularly proud of how the Sharma family, who are immigrants to London from India, was portrayed as outsiders in this world of opulence who eventually carved out a space for themselves.
“It’s much different for them than it is for the Bridgertons and the other families that we meet in this world. It’s an act of survival, and it goes beyond finding a love match,” the English actress said. “How am I going to protect and take care of my family, for them to live for them to eat, to be taken care of, and have a roof over their head? That’s the heartbeat I kept throughout the whole series, how important Kate’s family is to her. This wasn’t about who could get the Viscount, it’s so much deeper than that. Kate’s dedication and love for her sister is especially profound. Kate suffered a lot of loss when she was younger which she didn’t deal with because she had to sacrifice her own life to uplift Edwina’s, to give her a chance because she adores her. She doesn’t want her to go through the same things that she did.”
As for the future, Ashley hopes Edwina continues to grow into her own and potentially find a love match of her own.
Written by Rosy Cordero
Published March 30, 2022
Source
