Bridgerton fans think author Julia Quinn hinted that Hyacinth and Gregory could be recast in the future.
Eagle-eyed social media users pointed out that Quinn’s website listed Florence Hunt as a the “Young Hyacinth Bridgerton” while Will Tilston is referred to as “a young Gregory Bridgerton (years before his love story).”
Based on her book series, Bridgerton centers around the different members of a wealthy family as they each search for love in 19th century London. Season 1 of Netflix’s Bridgerton centered around Daphne Bridgerton (Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Page), who were the leads of the first book, The Duke and I.
Season 2 took inspiration from The Viscount Who Loved Me, which followed Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) as he found love with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Despite Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) being the subject of the third novel — An Offer From a Gentleman — his love story with newcomer Sophie (Yerin Ha) wasn’t explored until season 4.
The third season instead focused on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) as seen in Quinn’s book Romancing Mister Bridgerton. Brownell recently confirmed that Eloise and Phillip Crane or Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Michaela (Masali Baduza) are next in line.
Quinn previously addressed recasting concerns, exclusively telling Us Weekly in February, “It’s funny because they were, like, 12 and 13 when they started. If you asked me that back then [about the same actors playing them as adults], I’d be like, ‘I don’t know.’”
She continued: “But when I saw them again at the premiere, they were both drinking wine. They’re both 18 now and Will was there with his girlfriend.”
The author pointed out that there were still a few years before It’s In His Kiss and On the Way to the Wedding will be featured with their own seasons.
“[Showrunner] Jess [Brownell] has said the next two seasons will be either Eloise and then Francesca or Francesca and then Eloise, which makes sense. It takes a few years to film, so by the time we get to Hyacinth and Gregory, the actors are going to be well into their 20s,” Quinn explained. “So I think it’ll probably be OK. Will it be weird that we knew them when they were 12? We see child stars grow up all the time.”
She added: “As a writer, it was hard to write those two books at first. I really had to let them grow up in my mind a bit and that was hard for both of them. I was really glad it took several years — but even so — I can’t remember how much time passed in the writing. I really had to let them grow up. It was tough.”
Quinn said there’s a lot for fans to look forward to, sharing, “With Gregory, there’s that whole classic Regency hero who doesn’t want to get married. I was like, ‘But here’s this guy who’s now seen seven brothers and sisters fall in love. Why would he think that?’ So his story is very different. He’s desperate to fall in love. He’s this total romantic and he’s so excited to fall in love. He falls in love with the wrong person to start out with.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
